hold on my heart
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: this was the stupidest thing his father could have done. sneaking a marriage lisence in his homework then bringing his new bride home. she was small like a child, fragil like glass, and she was his to protect. now if only he could love her.
1. Chapter 1

This was the stupidest most irresponsible thing his father could have ever done to anyone. And he would have to live with it because the damage was already done, the sly bastard had slipped a marriage license in with his home work and now he was legally married to the wide eyed, petite girl across the table from him. It wasn't that he didn't like her. He just didn't know her. He did however dislike his father for doing this to the both of them.

And as usual he would have to be the adult in the house and take care of the girl whom was now his one and only priority. "God damn it, dad. What the hell were you thinking when you did this?" Ichigo asked as his blood started to boil. His dad's stupid smile never faltered.

"Helping you out, son. Your mother and I want grandchildren someday soon, and this way you don't have to go looking for the one who will bear your children, she's already right here. Is'nt that nice?"

"No, not really. I always thought that I would do things like you and mom. Ya know, fall in love with the mother of my children and such." Ichigo said sarcastically as his amber eyes flickered over to the girl he was married too. She wasn't even participating in the conversation, hell she wasn't even looking at him. He frowned, what was she thinking right now? Her face was paler than it had been a few minutes ago.

"Aw, Ichigo. Falling in love is easy. Just spend some time getting to know her and you'll see." Iishin Kurosaki said as he ruffled the girl's hair affectionately and stood up.

"By the way Ichigo, I found a place for the two of you to live for the next three years. I'll be closing down the clinic to move your things into the apartment while your at school." Iishin said as he pulled a key out of his pocket along with a sheet of paper with his new home address on it and walked off.

Ichigo sighed and picked up the paper and the key and looked at the girl. "And that is that, I guess. Come on. I'll walk you to school." Ichigo said as he got to his feet. She said nothing as she stood up. Her long black hair slipping over her slender shoulders as she moved to grab her bag as he waited for her at the front door.

"My name is Ichigo, by the way. What's yours?" He asked curiously since he would need to know what to call her. She glanced up at him but said nothing, maybe she just didn't feel like talking. He thought with a frown. Or maybe she was just shy. It was hard to tell at this point as the two of them walked to school together, Ichigo found his gaze flickering over to her small frame every few minutes or so.

She really was a pretty girl now that he really looked at her, but the fact that she was his wife now just felt odd to him. He wasn't quite sure what to think of his current situation, but he had never failed to do his job. And now his job included a family of his own, he was going to punch his dad the next time he saw him. The insensitive bastard had probably conned her into this marriage too.

The thought pissed him off even more as they reached the school and a few of his friends ran over to talk to him. He turned around to say something to his wife but noticed that she was gone already, having decided that it might be a good idea to simply disappear instead of being introduced to his friends.

* * *

She felt so stupid for believing Kurosaki Iishin about his son wanting a companion. But that is'nt what made her eyes sting with unshed tears. It was the fact that even the one she was now married too didn't want her. It was so sad it was funny. She had always wondered if she would ever find a person who wanted her, someone, anyone would do. But no one wanted her. Her family had'nt wanted her. The ones she had thought were her friends saw her as a toy, and had'nt cared about how much they had hurt her as long as they found her pain amusing. And now this.

She had been intrested with Iishin's request for her to marry his son, had even thought that maybe this was it. That she had finally found someone who would love her, and care for her. But it had all just been pretty lies. _I'm so pathetic._ She thought as she closed herself in one of the bathroom stalls just as tears started to slip down her pale face. She should have stayed at home. She should have let her family and friends toy with her until they finally killed her.

Anything was better than this sad and lonely fate. Even death.


	2. Chapter 2

Ichigo walked into class and let his eyes do a sweep of the room until he found her, his wife. The mere thought of having someone for his own made his stomach do a weird flip flop, maybe because he was nervous about how things would play out between them when they were alone. He turned his head slightly and spoke to Ishida, "Hey Uriu, do you know the name of that girl over there?" Ichigo asked as he pointed at her.

His wife was looking out the window, day dreaming. Ishida gave him a funny look then sighed and pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. How tiring, Ichigo had'nt been paying attention again. "Her name is...." Oh shit, he didn't know her name either. He quickly turned his head to look at Orihime. If anyone would know the girl's name it would be her. She was a bit of a busy body after all.

"Hey Orihime, do you know that girl's name?" He asked in a whisper, his face was slightly red from being caught unawares. Orihime blinked at him as Ichigo face palmed and grabbed Ishida by the front of the shirt.

"Damn it, Ishida. Why do I bother asking you specificly for anything?" He snarled as he shook the dark haired teen.

"I think her name is Honey. Or maybe it was Belle? I can't really remember, but her name is something along those lines. To be perfectly honest, she'll answer to anything. But she never really talks to anyone...." Orihime said as she tried to think of the dark haired girl's name and quickly went over everything she did know about her.

She was new to the school, having only been there for three months. She was quiet, liked to read, and listen to music. Liked small animals, especially kittens. Orihime frowned as she thought that part. She was'nt quite sure why she had thought that, but the girl did look like a kitten lover. Now if only she could recall what her name was?

"Hey Ichigo, do you know her name?" Orihime asked suddenly, a sunny smile on her face. Ichigo's eye twitched.

"Do you think I would be asking you guys if I knew her name?" Ichigo asked as he leaned down a bit, his voice raised a little bit because he was losing control of his temper. The dark haired girl stood up from her seat and walked across the room, although she didn't really walk. It was more like she glided across the room to where he was standing.

Her movements were very graceful, almost like a trained dancer or fighter. Ichigo cocked his head as she stopped right in front of him, the top of her head barely reaching his shoulders. She was so small, almost child like in appearance that he wondered if she was really in high school. She tilted her head so that she was looking at him for the first time, her violet eyes were lovely, or at least they would have been if they were'nt so dull, and dead looking.

She reached up a small hand and placed it on his chest over his heart and pushed slightly, he got the hint easily enough, she looked like she wanted to leave the room so he moved back out of her way and listened to her whispered tone as she passed him.

"Your a jerk Ichigo." He blinked and watched her leave the room and wondered what he had done to make her think he was a jerk. But at least she had finally spoken to him. It was'nt the perfect start, but it was something. And that meant a lot.

* * *

The moment the door closed behind her everyone turned to Ichigo. "What did you do to her?"

"I don't think that she likes you very much, Ichigo."

"I did'nt even know that you two knew each other." Orihime said cheerfully. Ichigo sighed. _I guess now is as good a time as any to explain things. _Ichigo thought as he walked toward the door and motioned for them to follow him.

"Whats going on Ichigo? Your acting weirder than you usually do." Ishida said as they walked with him until they reached the roof.

"I'll tell you in a second but first lets make sure that no ones around. I don't want Keigo finding out or he'll never leave me alone."

"Hn, good point." Chad said as they checked to make sure that Keigo was'nt lying in wait to ambush Ichigo like he usually did. He was'nt there. Good. Ichigo sighed and ran his long fingers through his hair as he leaned back against the fence.

"Okay, the long and short of it is my dad did something stupid. Again." Ichigo said as he looked away.

"Yeah but does'nt your dad do stupid things daily?" Ishida asked as he pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. Orihime cocked her head and quietly wondered what his dad had done.

"Well, yeah. But this one has to be the stupidest thing he has ever done." Ichigo said.

"As stupid as the time he got drunk, married that tranny, and joined the circus?" Orihime asked. Ichigo started to nodd his head then stopped. What had she just said?

"What the hell are you talking about?" Ichigo almost yelled, his face beet red while Chad and Ishida both looked at her funny.

Orihime looked form one face to another and decided that maybe she should'nt have said anything since Ichigo seemed really suprised. So suprised that he probably had'nt known about that little incident. Orihime had because she had witnessed the whole thing happen. Or rather she had witnessed Ichigo's dad marrying the tranny while he was totally out of it. She had even been in the pictures with the new couple. It had been such a shame when the marriage ended.

She gave a nervous laugh, "Nothing. Nothing at all."

Ichigo and the others gave her an identical 'Uh-huh' look. "So what exactly did he do to you this time?" Chad asked curiously. Ichigo looked away form Orihime and huffed a bit.

"He arranged a marriage between me and that girl, without my consent. And told me this morning that everything was in order and that I was a married man now, the bastard."


	3. Chapter 3

"Bastard indeed-" Ishida said with a bemused expression on his face. Ichigo had every right to be upset about his current situation, but he wasn't the only one with the right to be upset. His 'wife' had the right to be upset too. After all there was no telling what Ichigo's dad had said to the poor girl to con her into marrying his son. And to top things off, Ichigo didn't even know the girl's name. "But he isn't the only one being a bastard here Ichigo."

Kurosaki looked at him with a puzzled expression on his face. "Wha?"

"Think for a minute, you moron. You were both conned by your dad for some ungodly reason and now the two of you are stuck together. You don't know her name, her age, her likes or dislikes anymore than she knows yours. So why aren't you two sitting down somewhere talking about how your going to deal with this situation? Marriage is a life long union. And you're both under age, so even if things don't work out between you, you won't be able to divorce her for at least five years."

Ichigo opened his mouth to say something then abruptly shut his mouth as he realized that Uriu was right. Depending on her age, Ichigo would be stuck with her for the next four or five years. He wouldn't be able to date. Meet a nice woman and settle down, he was for all intents and purposes _trapped_. But he wasn't the only one.

She was trapped too.

Damn his father!

"Damn it, your right. I should find her and go somewhere to talk and sort this out." Ichigo said as he ran his fingers through his hair and sighed.

"Yes. You should." Uriu said sagely as he pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. Ichigo looked at Orihime as a thought occurred to him. He didn't know what to say to his wife. He knew that he should probably apologize to her for not knowing her name, and for the bull shit that his dad had pulled to bind them together. But other than that, he had no idea what to say to her.

"Orihime, can I ask your opinion as a girl?"

Orihime blinked at him, her smile never faltering. "Sure. I guess."

"If you found yourself in this sort of situation...what would you do?" Ichigo asked curiously. Uriu and Chad stayed quiet as Orihime thought for a second then said cheerfully.

"Why, I'd do my best to make my husband happy so that he wouldn't feel cheated. I would want him to be happy with me because that might be the only way that he would treat me well and keep me. Other wise I would question my self worth as a woman... D-Does that make any sense?" Orihime asked as she fidgeted with a strand of her long red hair and looked embarrassed. Ichigo blinked at her and thought over what she had said and wondered if that was how his wife must be feeling right now.

Had his irritation over their situation hurt her and made her question her self worth? He hoped not. But the only way to know for sure was to find her and talk to her. "Thanks Orihime. That was very helpful. I'll be sure to talk to my wife as soon as I find her." Ichigo said as he turned and started speed walking back towards the door.

"Chad! Do me a favor and tell the teacher that Honey got sick, and I had to take her home." Ichigo called over his shoulder. Chad nodded his head and smiled.

"Sure Ichigo. But you'll have to tell us how things went tomorrow."Chad called back. Ichigo paused at the door and grinned at them and gave them a thumbs up then slipped through the door before Orihime said in a chipper tone.

"He is sooooo dead-" Both Uriu and Chad looked at her with suprised expressions on their faces.

(************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

She sat on the ground around the back of the gym with her knees drawn to her chest, just staring up at the sky wondering what she was going to do about her present situation. She supposed that she could go back home, but she would really rather not because of the abuse that she had already suffered.

Being woken in the middle of the night and violated by her step siblings using a glass coke bottle and burned by cigarettes and matches were _not_ her idea of fun. She knew that it was only a matter of time before her family killed her, and that was why she been so desperate as to agree to marry Kurosaki Iishin's son without meeting him.

He had told her that his son was a nice guy, that he wouldn't hurt her physically or other wise as he had checked the week old wounds on her back and stomach.

And after meeting Ichigo this morning she was sure that he was a decent, even tempered guy. She cringed a little bit and shook her head slightly causing her dark hair to slip over her shoulders. At least she hoped he was a decent and even tempered kind of guy.

But for now she supposed she would have to wait and reserve her judgment of his character for later on when she got to know him a little better.


	4. Chapter 4

Ichigo had just finished looking for his wife in the main school building and was heading over to the gym the back way and blinked in surprise when he saw his wife sitting against the back of the gym building, with her legs drawn to her knees and her head tipped back so that she could watch the sky. He stopped in his tracks and studied her for a moment. She really was a cute kid. Small, and delicate. But cute.

She had a spacey look on her face that he almost laughed. Orihime had had such a look on her face all the time. And though he often shied away from wondering what Orihime was thinking about, he couldn't help but wonder what this girl, his _wife_, was thinking about.

Finally after a second or so he moved again, and walked over to her and dropped down to the ground next to her. She jumped and turned her head to look at him, a dazed look on her pretty face as she blinked her violet eyes at him.

"What were you looking at? There aren't really any clouds out today-" He said as he tipped his head back and scanned the sky above. There was nothing but soft blue as far as the eye could see. "Or were you trying to figure out what to do now?" Ichigo asked as he turned his head to look at her for a second. His gold brown eyes staring at her for a second as she stared at him wide eyed. Ah. So _that_ was what she had been doing.

He could tell by the guilty look on her face. He gave her what he hoped was a charming smile and looked back up at the sky. "You know Honey, we are married now and despite how we may feel about it we are more or less stuck. I don't know you. And you don't know me-"

"I heard that your like an ogre and that you eat small children." 'Honey' said rather quickly. Reminding Ichigo a little of Orihime before they had become such good friends. It would seem that his wife tended to blurt strange things out like Orihime used too when she got really nervous. Still...

He looked at her again and gave a nervous laugh as his mind filled with murderous intent. Whoever told her that was going to die. He was going to hunt them down and beat them to death for giving her the wrong impression about him. _I bet it was that bastard Keigo. He's always trying to screw me over in some way with his bad jokes. _Ichigo thought darkly, not really aware that his facial expression matched his thoughts until Honey started to subtly move back away from him.

He snapped out of it as Honey shifted away from him and blinked. "I got a freaky look on my face just now huh?"

Honey nodded but said nothing.

Instead she just started chewing her bottom lip, and Ichigo couldn't help but notice the color of her lips, the soft rose pink, and the small pearly white teeth chewing on her lip. He studied her for a second then finally realised that he hadn't said anything about the whole ogre eating small children thing. "I'm not an ogre, Honey. I'm a nice guy." Or at least he tried to be. But some situations that he got into required him to be _cold_ and _ruthless_ or some poor innocent might end up dead.

"You can say that all you like, but it doesn't change the fact that I don't know you. Nor does it change the fact that you obviously do not want me-"

Ichigo studied her expression, there was something about her softly spoken words that tied him up in knots. Maybe it was the words themselves or maybe it was the almost undetectable undertone of sadness to them. Whatever it was, she had his undivided attention as he reached out and grasped her waist and picked her up-

She made a squeaking sound and quickly grasped both of his wrists in her small hands as he set her in his lap and used one hand to pull her uniform skirt down around her knees when it rode up a little bit while he arranged her body just so then tipped her head back a little bit and was stunned when her dark hair slipped back away from her face giving him a wonderful view of the features that her bangs had hidden.

"Whoa." He muttered as he stared down at her.

She had to be the most _hauntingly beautiful_ girl that he had ever seen. Her delicate features were similar to Rukia's. With the exception that she had a more exotic look than Rukia. Even her wide violet eyes were different yet so strangely the same. She'd be as jaw dropping as Yuroichi in another three or four years, and who knew. Maybe by then he'd be head over heels in love with her and not want to let her go.

All in all he supposed that he could have done worse as far as looks went. Something that he just might have to thank his father for when he finally stomped his sorry ass into the ground. Honey had the most wary look on her pretty face that any one person had ever given him and he smiled a little bit, feeling like a wolf about to gobble up a little lamb.

"Your right about the fact that we don't know each other. So lets fix that and start at the beginning. I'm Ichigo Kurosaki. What's your name?"


	5. Chapter 5

Honey, was what she'd told him her name was. And while her name had given him the briefest of impulses to laugh, Ichigo had instead smiled at her. All the while thinking that Honey-while an odd name for a girl-suited her perfectly. She was just so shy and awkward that it was strangely sweet.

He'd led her away from the school intending to find some place where they could hang out and talk privately. They had ended up in the local park about a mile from his home-er former home. The two of them had sat there for hours.

Alternating out between sharing information and not speaking at all.

And by the time everything was done, Ichigo had a much better grasp of why his father had secretly married him to Honey.

Honey's family, it seemed didn't know a treasure when they had it right in front of them. They had been abusing Honey for years now. Beating her,_ molesting_ her, making her feel as if she were the lowliest of animals when they should have been protecting her.

To someone as fierce as Ichigo- someone whom had nearly _died_ time and time again trying to protect the lives and well being of those weaker than himself. He suddenly understood things so much better.

His father must have placed Honey in his hands knowing that Ichigo was physically incapable of hurting someone he felt responsibility for. He'd also married Honey to him in secret so that Ichigo couldn't refuse.

Not that he would have anyways if his dad had just explained things to him to begin with.

But he understood that while his dad acted as if what he had done wasn't a big deal; it was a _very_ big deal.

His father must have realised that marrying the girl to him in secret was the only safe thing that he could do that would allow him to wrest the girl from her family before they ended up going too far and killing her.

Ichigo grasped Honey's hand when their talk ended and used his fingers to calculate what size her wedding band should be. Then awkwardly asked her if she'd like to go shopping for the ring...as sort of a first date.

Honey gave him a curious look and asked why. To which Ichigo could only say that if he was going to keep her family from hurting her again, then they would have to make their secret marriage look as _real_ as a normal marriage.

Which meant that they would have to hold hands and kiss in front of others and act like they were in love. Honey got a slightly panicked look on her face for a moment. Obviously wondering if he was going to strike her or hurt her if she refused.

Which would have pissed Ichigo off under normal circumstances. But not now.

Now his only concern was to give her back the safety and security that she should have had to begin with. And he figured that shopping for wedding bands was as good as any place to start wooing his bride.


	6. Chapter 6

Ichigo looked into one of the jewelry store's glass cases, scowled, then looked over at Honey who was checking out a small display of flower earrings. He saw a lot of nice things that any girl would like. But he had no frigging idea what _she_ would like.

Did she want something plain with scroll work or flowers or butterflies. Did she like silver or gold? Did she want a diamond? Or another stone. Did she want a heart? A pearl? What color did she want the stone. Red? Blue? White? Clear? Green? Orange? Dammit he needed to ask, but his head was spinning from all the details that he couldn't quite form the words on his tongue.

He glanced back at the display case and scowled again and then straightened his spine and walked over to his wife whom had moved on from the earring display, to a small display of necklaces and bracelets.

He reached out and ghosted his fingers along her downy soft hair, causing her to jerk a little bit and turn to give him a wide eyed, frightened look before she seemed to calm herself and then turned back to the display case.

"Do you see anything that you'd like?" Ichigo asked curiously. He was willing to ignore the fact that he'd scared her if she was willing to ignore it. Honey shook her head no. And Ichigo sighed and ran his fingers through his hair in slight irritation.

"Have you looked over everything in the store?"

Again Honey shook her head no.

Ichigo didn't say anything for a little bit after that. Instead he simply moved over to a corner so that he wouldn't bother her while she looked at things and finally after about forty five inutes or so Honey walked over to him and grasped his shirt sleeve and tugged on it a little bit. He looked at her, wondering if she'd found something and sighed when she shook her head then headed for the door.

"Well hell." Ichigo said as he ran his fingers through his hair before pushing away from the wall and going after her. It looked like finding her a wedding band was going to be harder than he'd originally thought. Not that he minded much since it let him spend some quality time with his wife before they had to go home to the apartment that his dad had found for them.

Ichigo caught up to Honey a little ways down the street, standing outside of a fabric store that had a ribbon display in one of the glass windows. Honey was looking over the ribbon display as he walked up behind her and stopped an inch or so shy of touching her and stuffed his hands in his pockets so that he would better be able to resist reaching out and just stood there and let her look.

Finally after a few minutes Honey loooked up at him and chewed her lower lip before asking, "C-Can I have a ribbon?"

It was such a simple request, hesitantly asked out of anxiousness. Did she think he would turn her down? He wondered as he grasped her hand and led her over to the door of the store and pushed it open and let her slip past him into the store before he followed her in.

Once inside Ichigo watched Honey move over to a shelf of ribbons and pick up a peach colored spool then walk back over to him and held it out so that he could see it better. Ichigo tilted his head and took the spool from her and studied it.

It was a pretty color. A cross between champane and soft peach with gold thread trim.

Ichigo held the spool out next to Honey's head and tried to imagine what the ribbon would look like in her hair. The vision his mind conjured stole the breath from his lungs for a moment as he dug out his wallet and handed it to Honey along with the spool and gave her specific instructions to get the _whole_ spool then went outside to wait for her while she paid for her small treasure.

Ichigo was thinking about the color of the ribbon his wife had asked him to get for her while he waited. That strange cross between champne and soft peach would look good in Honey's hair. It would add a little color to her pale face and make her even more beautiful than she already was.

But more than that- the color had given him an idea about what to do about Honey's wedding band. It would mean getting a job, but Ichigo now had an idea. He was going to commission a ring to be made for her.

Nothing too big or flashy, nothing gaudy that would steal attention from her. Something nice, tasteful and simple would do. Maybe something in gold, with a little scroll word on the band, and a little flower in the center with little seed pearls for petals and a little champane or peach colored topaz in the middle.

He'd start looking into shops that could make it sometime tomorrow after school when he went out looking for a job.


	7. Chapter 7

Honey walked out of the store with her spool of ribbon and found Ichigo- no that wasn't right. He was her husband. And she needed to get used to thinking of him as such or her home life could be considerably worse.

She walked up to him and slipped his wallet into his hand. He jerked a little bit and looked down at her wide eyed for a second, then smiled. "Happy?"

Honey nodded her head and gave him a shy smile in response to his question as he put his wallet back into his back pants pocket then reached out and took the small bag from her. She looked like she was about to protest the action, giving Ichigo pause for a second, secretly hoping that she was feeling relaxed enough to speak up and tell him to give the ribbon back.

He could see that she wanted too.

It was clear in the conflicted emotions that flickered across her lovely face. But in the end, she seemed to decide against it. Ichigo thought it was a shame that her family had caused such a radical change in her. He'd bet anything that before they started abusing her, that she had been quite fiery.

But the years of pain and suffering that they had caused had forced her to become subdued in an effort to avoid more pain. Ichigo made a mental note to beat the ever loving hell out of some of her family, if they ever met face to face.

Which they would.

It was inevitable since they were _sadists_ and _control_ freaks whom had just lost their favorite toy. Which was why he'd take steps to see to it that she was watched over while he was at work. He'd have to talk to his dad, Kisuke, Chad, Orohime and anyone else that he could think of.

Maybe from time to time he could ask Rukia if she and Renji and Ikaku could stop by and keep Honey company until he got home. He'd bet that Honey might like having such people for companions.

As odd as the lot of them were, they were damn good a protecting their own. And Honey was one of them now by proxy. Besides, he doubted that they'd pass up the chance to meet his wife once they found out that he was married.

Hell, the day that they found out about his marriage, he wouldn't be the least bit surprised to have half of the Captian squads and a number of other soul reapers kicking down his door to appease their curiosity about Honey...

"Maybe I should talk to Orohime and the others and tell them to keep everything a secret for a while." Ichigo muttered to himself as he pulled the ribbon out of the bag and was more than a little pleased that it was already cut into lengths. They all measured a foot in a half each from the looks of them. And there was seven in all.

Which was perfect since it meant that Honey would be able to do all sorts of stuff with them even if she lost one or two. He pulled three of the ribbons out and turned around so that he was facing her. Honey tipped her head and blinked up at him as he reached out and started running his fingers through her silken hair.

"What are you doing?" Honey asked curiously as she felt him gently pull back some of her hair and give her a sort of calculating look before finally making a low happy humming sound and tying one of the ribbons so that it held most of her hair back from her face.

Honey stood perfectly still and let Ichigo have his way until he ran out of the ribbons that he'd pulled out of the bag and stood back and looked her over then gave a soft laugh. Honey frowned at him, wondering what he was laughing about when he said, "You look like a little neko-girl with your hair styled like that-" Honey turned and walked over to the front of the store that she'd just come out of and looked at her reflection in the window.

Ichigo had a strange way with hair. Honey supposed as she noted the way that her hair was styled.

Her husband had pulled a lot of her hair away from her face and tied it towards the sides of her head so that it looked like little cat ears with ribbons around them. Leaving the rest of her hair to fall freely down her back. Then just for fun, he'd tied the third ribbon around her neck after doubling it over three or four times.

So she really did _look_ like a neko-girl.

Ichigo walked up behind her, still smiling in amusement and stood next to her and then pulled out a forth ribbon and wrapped it around his own neck a few times then tied it into a loose little bow then looked down at her and grinned as he said awkwardly, "Uh, meow."

Honey's lips twitched a little bit. But she didn't really laugh until Ichigo did a wierd kitty cat pose with his fingers curled to make his hands look like paws and his butt sticking out a little bit.

Then she laughed.


	8. Chapter 8

A little while later Ichigo and Honey stood in front of their new home.

Honey had a curious look on her pretty face and Ichigo- Ichigo's eye was twitching a little bit. But not because of the shape of the house. No, he can honestly say that the shape of the house was pretty impressive.

There were no broken windows, the door was in one piece. He'd bet the inside was decent too. No rotting carpet, or mold anywhere.

The reason his eye was twitching a little bit was because the house was three places down from the clinic. Something that his dad must have done for safety reasons, just in case Honey's family showed up and tried to take her away.

But that didn't change the fact that he was still technically his dad's neighbor now. Nor did it change the fact that his dad would be driving them crazy with random visits at all hours of the day and night.

Ichigo made an irritated sound and muttered. "That bast-" Honey looked up at him and he automatically shut his mouth. Not wanting his wife to think that he had a temper. Even if it was a lie and he did have a temper, he knew that Honey wouldn't feel comfortable with him if she saw him in a rage over his father's meddling. "Uh... Let's go check out the inside." He said awkwardly as he walked up to the door and fished the key out of his pants pocket and unlocked the door.

He opened the door and peeked inside and scanned the living room for any unwelcome or bizarre gifts that his dad may have left for them and was only a little surprised that there wasn't a banner or something hanging from the ceiling.

He saw a few tarp covered pieces of furniture.

A couch, and a few chairs from the looks of them. He could also make out a large TV sitting on a table against the wall a few feet away and three or (was it) four coffee tables. He could also see a dozen or so boxes sitting off to one corner of the room with his name on all of them but four. The four without his name had Honey's name on them, which he supposed meant that they were specifically for her.

Ichigo sighed and took one more look around, this time searching for a light switch which he flicked on as soon as he found it then stepped back so that Honey could slip inside ahead of him.

Honey stopped just in the doorway, off to the side, and looked around her new home.

She could tell that Iishin Kurosaki had put alot of effort into making the place nice for her. She could tell by the colors of the freshly painted walls. They were a soft champaine/peach color with gold scroll trim.

Eeirily similar to the ribbons that Ichigo had bought for her.

The carpet was a pretty cream color with gold trim similar to what was on the walls. She looked around the room and saw a medium sized box with her name on it along with a small note from her new father-in-law that said in big bold letters,

**_Check out the inside of this box! I got you something nice so that the walls wouldn't look so barren._**

**_Love Dad._**

Honey walked over to the box and dropped down to her knees on the floor next to it and pulled back the top so that she could see what Iishin had left for her, and blinked at the contents of the box.

Inside the box were sixteen beautiful oil paintings of flowers in soft pink, purple, yellow, cream, pale blue and green hues. Honey pulled one of the paintings out and looked it over with a critical eye as Ichigo let out a low whistle and knelt down on her left and looked at the painting.

"Whoa, that's pretty." He said in a slightly awed tone.

Honey nodded and glanced up at one of the walls and seemed to be trying to figure out where to put the picture when Ichigo disappeared and started going through the other boxes before coming back over to her and setting down three boxes then tapping the top of the first one and saying, "Check these out and see if you have everything that you need." Then walked away again.

Honey set the painting aside and stood up and pulled down the top box so that she could sit down while she went through it and pulled it open and stared in shock at the pile of clothes with what looked like...

Her late mother's jewelry box sitting on top of it. Honey reached into the box with shaking hands and picked up her late mother's trinket box and set it in her lap and opened it and stared at the few possessions that her mother had left to her before she had died. A sterling silver ruby and pearl pendant necklace with matching dangle earrings. A sterling and 14 kt gold daisy pendant necklace that Honey had been given on her eigth birthday.

Just a few weeks before her mother had died. Her mother's diamond earrings. And the pearl necklace that Honey had gotten for her for mother's day when she had been seven.

An opal ring. A gold and garnet ring. A little flower and diamond chip ring.

And under neath them all was several old pictures of her mother and her together. Smiling and happy. Her vision blurred a little bit as she blinked and wiped at her eyes in an effort _not_ to start crying.

She didn't know how Iishin had managed to wrest her mothers things from her bitch step mother, and she didn't really care how he'd done it. All that matter to her was that she had what was hers again. She wiped her eyes one last time and closed the lid and set the trinket box aside and strated going through the clothes.

Turns out that Iishin Kurosaki may be a goof ball, but the man didn't forget the important things. He knew that Honey couldn't go home to get what few meager belongings that she had, so he had gotten her the things that he felt she wouldn't be able to live without.

Clothes to wear every season, under wear and bra's, some shoes, coats, scarves, gloves, brushes. There was a small tin box in one of the boxes full of ribbons and hair clips, every size and color imaginable. He had gotten her pads, some perfumes that to Honey; smelled rather nice. He'd gotten her razors so that she could shave...

Not that she had ever needed to shave her body. Her arms, legs and lower body were natrually smooth.

He'd gotten her some scented lotions, finger nail polish-

Honey snorted as it occurred to her why Iishin had gone to such trouble. It was rather cunning of him to try and make her feel normal by giving her as many things as a normal girl would have. He was trying to help her come out of her shell.

Subtely of course. By making her feel as welcome as he could without saying the words.

_Clever man._ Honey thought as she went through the rest of her stuff before wondering what else he'd done. She set some of the stuff that she'd pulled out of the boxes, aside and stood up then started walking through the house.

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Ichigo heard the faint steps of his wife as she systematically went through the house, checking the kitchen, the dining room, and the other rooms. He stopped going through his stuff and tilted his head a little bit and listened to the sound of her steps. Noting that the girl didn't just walk.

She _prowled_.

Like a wild tiger or lion that had been caged and was impatient for an opening so that it could escape.

His lips quirked up in faint amusement. His analogy of his wife's actions was spot on. Honey had been subdued for so long that she had become similar to a caged tiger or lion. Which meant that some part of her true nature was just _dying_ to come out.

Ichigo smirked at the thought.

If she was prowling around now when she thought he wasn't paying attention then he wondered what she would do if he pushed her buttons a little bit. He'd find out, he supposed. Later tonight when he gave her her first lesson as his wife.

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Yorouichi stepped through the gate that bridged the living world to the soul society with a smile on her face. She hadn't been expecting Iishin Kurosaki to approach her and ask a favor of her.

But after explaining what his favor was and _who_ it was for, she'd been only too happy to do as he had asked. In exchange for information about Ichigo's current situation. She'd only been mildly surprised to learn that Iishin had gone through with his plan.

She and Kiesuke had known several months before hand about the girl that Iishin had been treating for abuse. But Iishin wasn't able to do anything without proof. No matter how convinced he had been that someone had been hurting the girl.

After all she was a teenager and some teens had the tendency to hurt themselves.

So Iishin had come to them and asked Yuroichi to watch the girl and report back to him so that he could plan accordingly. Yuroichi had watched the girl for all of three hours before seeing several of her relitives hurting her around and laughing about it.

She had reported back to Iishin, whom had been disturbed so much by the girl's family's behavior that he had decided to wrest her away form them the only way that he could _legally_.

Which was why he had married her to Ichigo secretly.

As long as the girl was legally Ichigo's wife, her family could bitch and whine and cause trouble all they wanted, but Ichigo wouldn't let them lay a finger on the girl. But even so, Ichigo wasn't well equipped to deal with conniving and blood thirsty in laws. Which was why Yuroichi was in the soul society at the moment.

Ichigo had a _lot_ of friends among the soul reapers.

Many of whom would want to know how he's doing.


	9. Chapter 9

Iishin Kurosaki had made sure that the cabinets in the kitchen were fully stocked with dishes, silverware and food. Which also included the fridge and freezer.

But that wasn't all that he'd stocked.

After doing a complete exploration of the house, Honey had found that the bathroom was fully stocked with soap, shampoo (his and her) toilet paper, more pads, makeup, deoderant, tooth brushes, towels, rags.

The master bedroom was set up in a way that made Honey blush a vivd red. Mainly because there were roses and petals scattered all over the floor and the top of the queen sized mahogany bed. Just over the cream colored satin sheets.

Honey quietly stepped out of the room and closed the door and found a table and pushed it in front of the door. She didn't know exactly what Iishin was expecting from her and Ichigo, but whatever it was..._wasn't_ happening.

Not now. Not ever.

Nu-uh. No way. No how.

"What are you doing?" Ichigo asked as he came up behind her carrying an arm load of clothes. Honey jumped a little bit at the sound of his voice and looked up at him innocently.

She wasn't doing anything.

Ichigo looked his wife over with a peculiar expression on his face. She had done something. Or at the very least was trying to _hide_ something from him. Though what it was he had no idea. Yet.

She stared at him, making her expression as blank and innocent looking as possible. But Ichigo knew that look all too well, he'd grown up using and seeing that look. "Why don't you go make something for our dinner and leave the unpacking to me." Ichigo suggested, feeling that it was best to play along until he saw what it was that she obviously didn't want him to see.

Honey nodded her head and quickly bolted down the hall like the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels. Leaving Ichigo standing there in the hallway with a bemused expression on his face.

Running. Running was never a good sign. Especially if his father was somehow involved. _Now I'm getting worried. _Ichigo thought as he set the clothes on the table that she had used to barricade the door and gripped the door knob and twisted and pushed the door open, wondering what the use of barricading the door was when it could still be opened, and looked inside.

He flushed a little bit at the mess his dad had made and then pulled the door closed as a vein throbbed in his forehead. _Now, Honey's actions made sense- _Ichigo thought in embarrassment before he cracked his knuckles and smirked evilly.

_And now I have a reason to have a word with dad about taking things too far. _He thought as he took a moment or so to steel himself against the mess in the bedroom and then started to move the table out of the way so that he could get in and out.

He'd have to clean the room up before they went to bed tonight, but until then Ichigo figured that it would just be easier to keep Honey away from the room until he fixed it. He didn't want her _worrying_ or _dreading_ what he may or may not do to her tonight.

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Yorouichi's first stop was by Hitsugaya's office where she knew that she was bound to find Rangiku, hovering over her captain's shoulder, driving him crazy. She didn't however expect to find Rukia, Renji, Ikkaku, and Yumichika there too.

She pulled open the door to Hitsugaya's office and watched the chaos with a bemused expression.

"Stop that! Stop it right this second!" Toshiro yelled in irritation as Rangiku tied another pink ribbon in his spikey white hair while Ikkaku and Renji held the thrashing captain down while Rukia and Yumichika were off to the side of the room picking up the papers, books, and empty tea cups scattered all over the floor.

"But we can't stop sir, your going to meet one of the elders about an arranged marriage-"

"What the _hell_ are you talking about? I am not!"

"Now now sir-" Renji said in an effort to calm the younger man down. "It's almost over."

"Your damn right it's almost over! The second I'm free all of you are going to die for making me suffer this humiliation!" Toshiro roared as he finally managed to jerk one of his hands free and reached out and grabbed Renji's throat and tried to strangle him while Rangiku tied three more ribbons in his hair.

Yorouichi cleared her throat, and gave everyone a cheeky grin when they all turned to look at her.


	10. Chapter 10

The shinigami all stared at Yorouichi in total _shock_. Honestly it was like the exotic beauty had dropped a frigging bomb on their heads. They were just so stunned that none of them could so much as utter a word.

"I-I-Ichigo i-i-is m-m-married?" Renji finally managed to stutter out as he lifted a slightly shaking hand to point at Yorouichi whom was studying the varying expressions on each of their faces with a look of glee.

Oh yes, this was exactly what she was hoping for to shake things up a little bit. Things had been so boring the past few months that she had wanted to rip out Keisuke's hair in frustration. So natrually she loved having the chance to entertain herself at everyone else's expense.

It was just typical of her catty nature.

"Uh-huh." She said with a grin as the group finally seemed to snap out of their funk and started firing questions at her one after the other.

"But how is that possible? Ichigo is still in school!"

"How did this happen?"

"When did this happen?"

"Why wasn't Ikkaku and I asked to be Ichigo's best men?" Yumichika growled as he lifted his hands and threaded his fingers through his hair and pulled a little bit before he was knocked aside by Rangiku who grabbed Yorouichi by her shirt and started to shake her as she practically shrieked.

"How could Ichigo marry someone else? I already had my eyes on him as a future husband-Gyaa!" Rangiku was kicked aside by Rukia who gave Yorouichi a death glare for a moment before hissing at her.

"Wait outside for a second-" The petite shinigami cracked her knuckles menacingly as she turned her violet eyes on her friends as she said. "I need to have a heart to heart with these fools."

Yorouichi put her hands up, palm out and quickly exited the office and jumped as the door slammed shut behind her a second before the sound of several people running and screaming reached her ears. _Wow,_ this was way better than she had thought it would be.

It wouldn't be much longer before every captain and lieutenant in soul scociety knew about Ichigo's marriage and decided to go pay the substitute shinigami a visit.

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Dinner hadn't been as bad as Ichigo had thought it would be.

Turned out that Honey was a very good cook thanks to the years and years of practice she had gotten from her family. After dinner Ichigo had gone to finish unpacking then had cleaned up the bedroom, leaving only a few of the rose petals scattered around on the bed.

He figured that it was only natural that he want what he did next with Honey to feel as romantic as possible for her since he knew that it would no doubt start out scaring the hell out of her. But Ichigo wasn't unprepared for this. He had a battle plan so to speak.

He would give Honey control. Something that was difficult for a guy like him to do since it meant leaving himself open and vulnerable. But he knew that if Honey was ever going to feel safe around him, then she had to trust him.

This was the best way to earn her trust.

He sat in the bedroom on the bed in nothing but his pajama pants with a small pocket knife in one hand listening to the sounds coming out of the bathroom. He had told Honey to go ahead and take a shower so that she could settle in for the night knowing that after he did what he needed to do; he probably wouldn't be able to sleep without either hunting down and killing a few Hollows or punching out his dad for placing him and his wife in such a _percarious_ situation.

He glanced at the clock and noted the time and let his lips curve up in a small amused smile. It had been almost an hour since Honey had gone into the bathroom and though Ichigo didn't know exactly what she was doing in there he knew that she was probably dreading what he was going to do to her.

_I'm not a beast-_ Ichigo thought as he flicked open the small knife and ran his thumb along the blade to check it's sharpness. It took a little more pressure than he would have liked but after a moment or so he felt the sting of the blade as it cut his thumb and drew his fingers away from the blade and sucked on his thumb to stop the bleeding as he thought._ But if I have to bleed a little bit tonight and every night after to make Honey feel safe, then so be it. _

He would help his wife free herself from the fear that her abusive family had instilled in her. He would help her _regain_ her spirit and _protect_ her from further harm. Or he would die trying.

He heard the squeak of the shower being turned off and tensed up a little bit as he mentally went over his plan in his head. Okay, he could do this. It was easy considering what _could_ happen to Honey if he failed to carry out his plan correctly.

He needed to make their marriage as real as possible so that her family couldn't touch her anymore.

The bathroom door opened and Ichigo's head snapped up, his golden amber colored eyes locking on his wife as he sucked in a ragged breath and held it as he looked her over. Dear god in heaven Honey was a vision in the overly large button up long sleeved white shirt that she was wearing.

The shirt was so big that it practically swollowed Honey's delicate body, the sleeves hung loosely around her slender shoulders showing off some of her ivory white skin. The sleeves had been rolled up a little bit so that her hands weren't covered and she still wore the ribbons that he had gotten for her. The one around her wrist and the other around her neck.

Her thick dark hair was still slightly damp and hung down her back in soft waves and curls that Ichigo couldn't wait to tangle his fingers in. She just looked so inviting that he had to fight back his instinct to grab her up and kiss her senseless.

Really she was just that cute.

Ichigo hid the knife by shifting slightly and stuffing it under one of his thighs for the time being and without taking his eyes off fo his wife asked, "Do you know what's going to happen next?"

Honey hesitated and nodded her head, her expression-one of fear-was partially hidden behind her bangs as she waited for Ichigo to make his move.

Ichigo looked at her curiously. He wanted to ask her what she thought was going to happen but knew that if he did, he likely wouldn't be able to function right once he heard her answer. So instead he simply chose to ignore what she had implied and held a hand out to her and said very softly. "Come here sweetheart."

Honey looked at his hand then glanced towards the door. "You won't get far if I have to come after you, honey-" Ichigo said gently. Drawing her eyes back to him before he said. "I would chase you down and drag you back here if I have too. And since I know that your scared; I really don't want to be put in the position where I'll have to chase you down. Now please, trust me enough to know that I'm not going to hurt you and come to me."

Honey hesitated a second or so longer as she seemed to mull over what he had said. Ichigo had a bit of a point. He would probably chase her down so running was useless but she couldn't help herself.

Trusting him completely this early in the game could put her in a postition that was much worse than the one that she had just escaped from. And she couldn't afford that. Could she?

She shook her head and turned to run to the door when she heard Ichigo sigh and get up off of the bed and pad across the room after her. He had her boxed in and trapped a second later, the front of her body pressed against the bedroom door trapped between the wood and Ichigo's body.

She felt a shiver run through her as Ichigo pressed himself against her back a little bit and used one hand to sweep her hair away from her nape before lowering his head and kissing her there before grasping one of her hands in his and stepping away.

Ichigo couldn't blame her for trying to run. This situation was less than ideal for her, and because he didn't know what all her family had been doing to her all these years then it sort of made sense that she would try to run from him. After all she didn't know him.

She had married him out of desperation. The need to escape.

Again, he couldn't blame her. But that didn't mean that it didn't hurt him at least a little bit on some level.

He pulled her across the room to the bed and then sat back down in place and tugged her down into his lap and wrapped his arms around her. She was shaking like a leaf, her face hidden against his shoulder. He ran his fingers through her dark hair and rocked her a little bit trying to sooth her fears as best as he could so that he could move on to the next step.

It took a little longer than he would have liked, but finally Honey stopped shaking so much and tilted her head back a little bit to look at him, her violet eyes questioning. She didn't understand _what_ he was doing. Or _why_ he was doing it.

He could see it in her eyes. Her puzzlement and confusion. He smiled at her and brushed her bangs back from her face and kissed her forehead, then her cheeks, slowly working his way down to her mouth. His lips just barely brushed hers when he felt her push against his chest as hard as she could, nearly knocking him over as she ducked her head and lifted her arms to protect her head.

Ichigo blinked at her a second before realization hit him. She thought that he was going to strike her for pushing him away. Is that what her family had done? Beat her? He felt a sudden surge of murderous rage and took several deep breaths to get himself back under control and silently prayed that he made it through the night without losing his temper.

Once he felt calm again he reached out and gently pried Honey's arms away from her head and kissed her palms, then the inside of both of her wrists- Honey lifted her head and looked at him with a pained look on her pretty face and Ichigo's chest ached in response to that look.

He couldn't stand seeing such a look on this girl's face. It just wasn't right.

"It's okay Honey-" He said as he pulled her against his chest again and sighed as he rested his chin on top of her head. Maybe it would simply be easier for her if he told her what he was planning. At least if she knew what to expect she might not feel so scared.

He took a few minutes to explain what he was going to do to her, then once he was done he brushed her bangs back away from her face and asked her if she understood what he was planning. Honey nodded her head and he smiled and kissed her cheek then scooped her up and stood and then set her on the bed and picked up the knife and put it in her hand and closed her slender fingers around it.

Honey looked at the small blade in horror then looked at Ichigo as he leaned over her and said very softly, "I'm giving you control of what happens here tonight. You will direct my actions. What I can and cannot do. If at any time you feel scared then stab me with the knife-"

Honey opened her mouth to protest but Ichigo silenced her by leaning his head down and catching her mouth in a heated kiss that stole her breath and left her feeling dizzy when he lifted his mouth from hers and smiled down at her before continuing. "Just aim for my shoulders or legs. The knife is under an inch long so it won't do too much damage as long as your careful."

Honey just blinked at him, her eyes wide and wary as he leaned over her again and gently claimed her lips again.

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Well, here it is.

A nice long chapter for you.

Hope that you enjoy it.

Let me know what you think.


	11. Chapter 11

Honey couldn't control the shaking in her limbs no matter how hard she tried. It was just too hard. She felt Ichigo's fingers deftly unbutton her shirt and made a distressed sound in the back of her throat and gripped the knife in her hand so tightly that her knuckles were white.

She wanted to go ahead and poke him with the blade but was a little bit curious to know what he would do next.

She might have asked him if he hadn't scattered her thoughts by wrapping his arms around her as he lightly bit down on the sensitive spot where her neck and shoulder met earning a shocked cry from her as he created a pleasant tingling sensation that spread throghout her body.

She was so shocked by the sensation of his mouth on her skin that she even forgot to breathe. It was only when Ichigo lifted his head and sort of shook her a little bit that she finally managed to take a deep shuddering breath and blinked at him.

He sighed and leaned over her, shifting his body so that he was half on top of her, his weight resting on his elbows and pressed his mouth against her cheek when he felt her hands _push_ against his chest. Knowing the signal for what it was Ichigo backed off and asked, "Did I do something wrong?"

Honey was quiet for a second before nodding her head. "I-I d-don't like b-being p-pinned."

Because being pinned reminded her too much of the pain was about to suffer and while Ichigo didn't have a coke bottle that he could hurt her with, that didn't mean anything. There were other ways. And she was pretty sure that she wouldn't like them even if it was her husband that did those things to her.

Even though she could tell that he was trying hard _not_ to scare her.

Ichigo nodded his head and thought for a second before reaching down and pulling her upright on the bed and then said, "Lets try something else then-" He moved behind her and wrapped an arms around her middle and pulled her back against him until he had her settled between his legs. "I'm going to do something this way so that you won't feel pinned down or scared. Okay."

Honey nodded her head and jumped a little bit when Ichigo swept some of her hair out of the way and buried his face against her nape and _breathed_ on her causing a shiver to run down her spine as she squeaked. Ichigo chuckled and breathed on her nape again felt her squirm in his grasp.

For a moment he thought that she was trying to get away from him but figured that she wasn't when she settled down and seemed to be waiting for what he was planning to pull next. He nuzzled her nape, enjoying the feel of her skin against his, breathing in the soft floral scent that clung to her hair and wanted to fall asleep holding her like this so that he'd have her right where he wanted her when he was awake and asleep.

The thought held a great deal of appeal to him.

He removed his arm from her middle and loosely wrapped his fingers around her neck and used his hand to direct her to tilt her head slightly so that he could nibble on one of her little ears.

Honey gasped and grabbed both of his legs and dug her finger nails into his legs, causing Ichigo to hiss a little bit and nip sharply at her earlobe before growling, "That hurts a little." He nuzzled the curve of her jaw then tilted her head back so that he could kiss her lips but had to pull away when his soul reaper badge started beeping.

He sighed and looked down at Honey, regret etched into his features as he let her go and then carefully pried her hands from his legs and then moved away from her, making his way over to the edge of the bed and grabbing the badge and looked at it like he'd like to break it into pieces for a second.

Then sighed again and got up off of the bed and walked over to the closet and grabbed a shirt out of it and pulled it on over his head then turned to Honey and thought for a second before deciding to lie to her and said, "I'm going to go see what my dad wants at this hour. I might be gone for an hour or so depending on what he wants. I'll try not to wake you when I come back..." He walked over to the bed and stared at her for a second trying to think of what to say next when he noticed that she still had the small knife in her hand. "I want you to keep that knife on you from now on. Keep it on you where you're here and when you're at school. When you go out with friends, or to run errands-"

Honey opened her mouth to ask him why but he stopped her by covering her mouth with his hand and saying, "Starting tomorrow I'm going to teach you how to take care of yourself if your family ever shows up and I'm not around-" Honey's face when as white as a sheet, her violet eyes got impossibly wide and Ichigo could feel that she was close to freaking out on him big time and mentaly cursed himself for saying something like that to her when she was so scared of them. But he had already decided that he wouldn't _lie_ or _sugar_ _coat_ things when it came to her family.

It was one of the few subjects that he could be totally honest about and damn it he would be honest, even if it hurt her feelings or scared the ever loving hell out of her. "I'm sorry for scaring you with this, but I refuse to lie about what you should already know. They will come for you and try to take you from me. Their _monsters_ who feel that you are their property. Which is why I'm going to teach you to defend yourself. I refuse to leave you weak and vulnerable to their attacks, alright."

Honey nodded her head slightly and he removed his hand from her mouth and caught her chin in his fist and tilted her head back and gave her a quick kiss on the lips then let her go, turned and walked away.


	12. Chapter 12

Ichigo returned home at about four in the morning expecting to find Honey sound asleep in their bed and was just a little surprised to find his wife laying on the living room floor wrapped in a blanket, sound asleep.

It looked like she had decided to try and wait up for him and had just fallen asleep.

She looked so relaxed and vulnerable in her sleep that Ichigo was loath to try and move her because she might wake if he did. He sighed and dropped down to one knee beside her and gently shook her shoulder to see how deeply she was sleeping and was more than a little shocked when she didn't respond.

He frowned a little bit knowing instinctively that she wasn't reacting like someone who had been abused and looked around the room and stopped when he spotted an empty glass sitting on the kitchen counter next to an empty foil packet.

Shit, she had taken sleeping pills or something just to be able to rest undisturbed. He stood up and walked over to the counter to see how many she had taken, suddenly worried that maybe she might have overdosed or something and was relieved when he found just one foil packet.

He read the instructions on the back and looked back at Honey when he read that the pills would work for twelve hours. It looked like Honey would be sleeping through some of her classes tomorrow. But that was okay since he could help her with her work whenever she got behind on it.

Walking back over to her he dropped back down beside her again and carefully scooped her up in his arms and stood up cradling her in his arms. Honey curled herself against him in her sleep, burying her face against his shoulder as he carried her down the hall to the bedroom and laid her down on the bed then crawled into bed beside her and pulled her back against him and closed his eyes and let himself doze.

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Honey stifled a yawn behind one of her hands and blinked her eyes in an effort to ease the burning sensation as she walked next to Ichigo. Her husband looked down at her with a peculiar look on his face then dug something out of his pack and held it out to her.

"Here. Take this and drink it. It'll help flush the pills out of your system." He said as she reached out and took the thing from him and stared at it for a second before realising that it was a box of apple juice. She pulled the sraw off of the side and poked it through the opening at the top and started drinking. Oddly enough she was really thirsty.

She hadn't been before, but for some reason she was now. _Weird_. She finished the juice off and looked around for a trash can and was a little bit startled when Ichigo took the empty box from her and stuffed it back into his bag then grasped her hand in his and tugged her along behind him until they reached the school gate.

"Well here we are."

Honey made a humming sound but didn't say anything. To be perfectly honest she was too out of it to speak. Much less think. Which was probably why she was so startled when Ichigo wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close and gave her a sweet lingering kiss before asking. "Do you have your knife on you?"

Honey nodded her head and patted herself down until she found where she had hidden the small blade and showed it to him. Ichigo smiled at her and hugged her tightly for a second. "Good. Now all I need you to do is wake up a bit more so that I can teach you how to use it during lunch break. Think you can do that?"

Honey nodded her head and stiffled another yawn as someone called out Ichigo's name drawing his attention away from her for a second as one of their classmates came running up and started talking to him.

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Across the street from the school a black sedan sat parked in one of the parking places provided for the students that drove to school. There were two men sitting inside of the sleek black car, their eyes riveted on the school and the people in front of the gate.

"There she is." The youngest said as he pointed Honey out to his companion.

The older man leaned across the seat a little bit and squinted. Yup that was their bitch alright. They had been looking for her for the past two days and had nearly had a fit when they had gone home after receiving a call from the elder's wife whom had been hysterical about the girl being gone because she had been worried that she had gone to the police about being abused.

But if that was so she wouldn't have taken her things. Then there was the fact that no one had shown up at the house to arrest them. Meaning that the little slut had run away from home and was staying somewhere. Probably at their expense.

Which meant that they needed to find her and drag her back and punish her for thinking that she could escape them. "Hm so it is her." The elder said quietly as he leaned back into his seat.

"Now what do we do?"

"We'll wait until school lets out and follow her to see where she goes and who she's with. Then we'll show up, knock on the door and demand our property back."


	13. Chapter 13

Lunch time came quicker than Honey realized, but then she supposed that time usually flies pretty fast when one was sleeping through everything.

Luckily for her Ichigo had take notes and once lunch time rolled around he'd been kind enough to wake her and introduce her to the of their class mates whom knew about their marriage. Then helped her put her things away and then grabbing her hand and dragged her up to the roof with him and his friends.

Once there, Ichigo waited until everyone was a little less awkward then asked his friend, this really big guy named Chad, to help him with a demonstration then asked Honey for the knife that he had given her and explained what he was going to do. Honey dug it out of her hiding spot and handed it to him a little worried about_ what_ exactly he was going to show her. And _how_ he was going to demonstrate it.

She needn't have worried. Ichigo took the knife and without another word positioned his friend where he needed him to be then turned back to her as he started speaking.

Honey gave him her undivided attention as Ichigo explained that what he was going to show her was for self defense purposes then in a quick motion that was a little hard to follow, Ichigo used the closed knife to slash along the inside of Chad's inner thigh, dangerously close to his groin.

Causing the giant to stiffen and get a funny _mortified_ look on his face.

Ichigo gave him an apologetic look then made another slashing motion across Chad's neck then changed his position and grip on the blade and made like he was going to stab his friend in both the eye and the ear then thanked him and told him that he could go ahead and eat his lunch.

Chad scurried over to the other two whom had been watching with great interest as Ichigo explained the reasons why if Honey ever felt scared enough to defend herself that the area's that he had shown her a second ago were the best places to strike at.

Once he finished explaining he handed her the pocket knife then told her to practice on him a few times to make sure that she got it down right.

Honey as it turned out was a quick study. She had her first lesson down and after a few practice runs, Ichigo was ready to move on to show her how to throw a desent punch. And how to break someone's nose so that she could run away.

All in all the lessons took thirty minutes or so. After which they stopped to eat something from the lunch that Ichigo had made for them both that morning before school.

Honey was sitting down beside Ichigo. Her class mate Orihime on the other side of her. And she was staring at the food in the boxed lunch with a dubious expression on her face as Ichigo fixed half of the boxed lunch and handed it to her along with something to eat it with. Honey looked at the little sausage octopuses, the little apple bunnies, the imperfect rice balls, and the burnt shrimp and vegetables that she'd been handed and glanced at Ichigo from under her bangs as he took a bite of his food.

She waited a heart beat of so and after seeing that the food obviously wasn't killing him she decided to try it and took a small bite. And was surprised that the food actually tasted good. "I didn't know that you could cook." Honey said in an slightly accusing tone as Ichigo finished off his lunch and sat back in a semi reclining position as he waited for her to finish.

He looked at her and then gave her a sinister looking grin. "I can't cook. In fact this was the first time I've ever tried. Thanks for being my guinea pig, sweetheart." Honey stopped eating and gaped at him as he laughed.

God she had such a comical look of horror on her face that he just couldn't help himself.

Honey pulled herself together and finished her lunch then stood up and dusted her skirt off and politely escused herself from the group and left to go to the bathroom. Leaving Ichigo alone with his friends. "Wow, things seem to be going well between you two." Orihime said as she finished off her caramel and red bean soup and anchovie garlic bread.

Ichigo looked at her for a second and seemed to be thinking about something before saying. "It's not going as well as you may think."

"Oh? So there's trouble already huh?" Ishida asked in a curious tone.

"You wouldn't believe how much trouble there is... I found out why my dad married the two of us against my will."

"Oh? Why?" Chad asked as he twisted the lid off of his bottled water and took a drink as they waited for Ichigo to go into details.

"What I tell you three stays between us. It doesn't leave this roof, you understand-" Ichigo said in a growling tone, his body language changing from relaxed to guarded. "It's a very painful thing for Honey to talk about and I won't have anyone asking her about it or using it to harass her."

The three had the decency to look offended. "We wouldn't do something like that Ichigo."

"No. You wouldn't. But others might if any of you slip. Thats why I said that this doesn't leave the roof. And for the love of god none of you can start acting differently towards her or she'll know that you know. Which will mean that she'll know that I know more than I should. It will upset her and drive her away-"

"Your secrets are safe with us Ichigo." Ishida said gently, understanding that whatever it was Ichigo was about to tell them; it must be bad. _Real bad _if the substitute shinigami was hesitating to say anything about it.

Ichigo looked worried but nodded his head and started talking.

He didn't bother to look them in the eye, he doubted that the horror in their expressions would have sat well with him. But he felt that they needed to know this, despite the sudden stab of guilt he felt that it was _necessary_ to tell them so that they wouldn't find out later and accidentally cause Honey harm.

Especially since he hadn't asked them for their help to keep Honey safe yet.


	14. Chapter 14

Ichigo's conversation with the others went about as well as expected.

They hadn't asked for much detail since they knew how much his suspiscions were tearing him up inside. Something that he was eternally thankful for when he dropped the _second_ bomb on them and told them that he needed them to help him keep Honey safe from her family, that he couldn't leave her alone at home or school because someone might try to drag her off and then he may never see her again.

Orihime told him that she could watch over Honey after school if he wanted. She even told him that she could start right away since he had explained that he was planning to get a job.

Ichigo gave her a warm smile as Chad told him that he could start walking the two of them to school in the mornings so that Ichigo would have an extra set of eyes to help watch for trouble and Ishida said that he could act as Honey's bodyguard or something whenever she needed to go out shopping.

The four talked about things a little more and agreed that Ichigo needed to get Honey a cell phone and fix it so that their numbers were on speed dial just in case. Ichigo couldn't have agreed more since Honey would need a way to call them if she ever got caught alone.

Shortly after that the bell rang and they went back to class where Honey was already sitting at her desk, anxiously watching the door for her husband.

Orihime made a sly comment to Ichigo about how cute his wife was when she was anxious and Ichigo flushed to the roots of his hair and hid his face as he made his way to his desk and then hid himself away behind a book and waited for the day to end while Orihime laughed and took her seat.

School let out at about four fifteen.

At which time Ichigo stuffed everything into his desk then stood up and stretched his hands over his head and rolled his shoulders to work out the kinks in his back and neck then looked over at Honey's desk to see if she was ready to go and snorted when he saw that she was asleep again.

He walked over to her desk and dropped down to one knee next to her and brushed her dark hair back from her face, causing her to stir a little bit and crack open an eye. "Hey, it's time to wake up honey. School's over for the weekend."

She groaned and pushed herself up a little bit and rubbed her eyes with her hands and then looked around the room noting that it was nearly empty then looked at Ichigo and blushed as he smiled at her and stood up and waited as she put her book, her penciles and pens, and papers away before standing up and grabbing her book bag.

"Which books do I need to take home?" Honey asked tiredly, referring to the few subjects that she had missed due to her napping.

"Don't worry about it, I'm bringing my books home so you can use them-" Ichigo said as he grasped her small hand in his and subconsciously laced their fingers together, wanting to hold onto her for a little while since he would be apart from her for a few hours today while he went job hunting.

Honey looked down at their hands and blinked as her face heated up and she squeezed his hand slightly out of reflex and made an 'eep' sound when he turned his head to look at her over his shoulder as they walked out of the classroom, and down the hall to the stairs, and took them one at a time until they reached the bottom.

Once there Ichigo tossed his book bag down on the floor and turned to her and backed her against the wall and held her there so that he could steal a few more minutes alone with her.

"I-Ichigo?" Honey stammered as he leaned his head down and instead of kissing her mouth like she thought he was going too, he totally bypassed her mouth and buried his face against the hollow of her throat and _breathed_ on her. Causing her to squeak and grip his shirt as she squirmed.

"Stay still." Ichigo said against her throat in an amused tone as he supressed the need to laugh. His wife was the most sensitive, jumpiest, squimiest person he'd ever met before in his life. And as vexing as it was when she squirmed against him like that, he also found it absolutely adorable.

It made him want to pin her down somewhere and breathe on her neck until she begged him to stop. He smiled at the thought and rubbed his face against her skin, breathing in her scent and wishing that he could stay like this for just a little bit longer.

"Ichigo what are you doing?" Honey asked in a slightly breathless tone as a shiver ran down her spine.

Ichigo stopped moving his head and slipped an arm around her as he moved his body closer and lifted his head and kissed the curve of her jaw, her cheek, then skimmed his lips along the corner of her mouth before fastening his mouth to hers and giving her a deep, toe curling kiss that left her feeling breathless and dizzy by the time he pulled away.

He ran one of his fingers along her bottom lip, wiping away some of his siliva as she tried to catch her breath. "Sorry but I couldn't leave you without a decent kiss-" Honey blinked at him.

"Leave?" She asked in a worried tone. Ichigo made a humming sound and kissed her forehead then let her go and stepped away.

"I'm going to go look for a job so that I can take care of you. Which means that you'll be going home with Orihime today. I want you two to have a nice visit while I'm out and try not to worry about anything. I'll come home a little late, but I _will_ be there okay." Ichigo said as he bent down and picked up his back pack.

Honey took several shakey breaths then pushed away from the wall and started walking again. She didn't bother responding to Ichigo's words, she knew he'd come home once he had too. So she wasn't terribly worried.


	15. Chapter 15

No, she hadn't been terribly worried about being alone with Orihime until the girl had hijacked her kitchen so that she could cook them something to eat and nearly burned the house down when the oven all but exploded into flames.

Causing both girls to scream in terror and duck and cover while they wrestled over Orihime's cell phone and yelled various arguments back and forth about whether or not they should call Ichigo and let him know that he may be _homeless_ and a _widower_ by the time he returned home.

In the end Ishin Kurosaki happened to be stopping by to say hello and saw the kitchen going up in flames and had run to a closet and pulled out a fire extinguisher and quickly put the flames out then turned his attention to checking on the two girls huddled on the other side of the counter looking pale and shaken.

"Good grief. I've heard of bad cooking but this is a little much-" Ishin said in amusement as he set the extinguisher down on the counter and knelt down in front of Orihime and Honey and looked them both over as he asked. "Are you two okay? You didn't get burned or anything did you?"

Orihime slowly lowered her arms away from her head and blinked her grey eyes as she mentally checked herself over for any signs of pain before shaking her head no. Ishin ruffled her hair affectionately then turned to Honey whom seemed to be doing the same.

Physically she looked okay. Though one of her hands had a vivid red spot on it in the area between her thumb and index finger that looked like it would need tending and there was a few locks of her hair that looked like it was singed.

"You okay Honey?" Ishin asked as he wondered if she knew about her hair being damaged to the point where it would need to be cut a little bit. Honey nodded her head and then started to run her fingers through her dark hair and stopped when she reached the rough, melted tips and stared at it tangled around her fingers.

Orihime's eyes widened in horror and she suddenly burst into tears. Ichigo was going to kill her!

"I-I'm sorry! I shouldn't have tried to cook!" Orihime sobbed as she hid her face in her hands. Honey frowned and looked up from her hair and snorted. She wasn't bothered by the fact that her hair was singed. Hell she wasn't even bothered by the fact that her kitchen was a huge mess and more or less in ruins.

"Don't worry about it Orihime."

"But your hair!"

"Will grow back." Honey assurred the girl with an amused smile.

"But Ichigo will be furious!"

Honey opened her mouth to tell Orihime that she was crazy when Ishin finally say. "Well the girl's got a point there. Once Ichigo sees that your hair has been cut he'll start asking questions-"Honey raised a brow at her father-in-law and shifted so that she could raise herself up a little bit and looked over the top of the counter at the huge mess of burnt wall paper, and singed tiles and thinned her lips. She'd bet that Ichigo would have a _huge_ question about the state of the kitchen.

"Then he'll get pissed... Tell you girls what, if Ichigo asks what happened to the kitchen and Honey's hair, just tell him that it was my fault. He'll stomp my ass and then he'll get over it. No harm done." Ishin said as he stood up and helped Orihime to her feet as Honey got up oiff fo the floor and looked at her kitchen again and _cringed_.

She was not looking forward to cleaning that mess up alone. Luckily, Ishin wasn't going to make her clean the mess alone and after calming Orihime down and sending her on her way home, he quickly gave Honey a hair cut to fix the mess that the heat and flames had made of her downy soft hair. Cuting about an inch from it's original length before he and Honey turned their attention to cleaning up the mess in the kitchen as best as they could.

They were just about done with the task when there was a knock at the front door. Thinking that it might be his son coming home from whatever errand he might be running, Ishin set his cleaning supplies aside and walked out of the kitchen, across the living room and opened the door and then froze in place when he saw a man about his age with dark hair and flat cold eyes and a young man about Ichigo's age standing on the doorstep.

_Oh shit... _Ishin thought as Shishi Aoiki and Miki Aoiki both rudely shoved their way past him and stepped into the house before Ishin could even respond. "Hey!" Ishin yelped as he turned around and grabbed the younger of the two trouble makers as Honey walked out of the kitchen to see what he was doing and went totally still when she saw the predatory look on her father's face and paled.

Oh god, they had found her.

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Ichigo was excited about the result of his job hunt. He'd thought that he would have to look for several weeks until he had found a nice night club just two blocks or so from where he lived that needed a new bouncer.

It wasn't the most ideal job in the world, but he had explained that not only was he a still a student in high school, but he was now living with his wife via an arranged marriage and needed a job that payed well and allowed him to use what skills he had.

The guy running the club had been amazingly understanding about Ichigo's situation then just to make sure that he could handle himself had three bouncers working the day shift to test his ability to protect himself if he got in a bad situation. He'd been tested by two unarmed men, and one armed man with a switch blade.

Ichigo had trounced them in under two seconds flat and had been hired on the spot. His new boss had told him that he could work nights on holidays, weekends, school vacations and during summer and spring break.

He'd told Ichigo what he had to do to do his job well and had told him that he would make a killing in bribes then had told him to report back to the club for his first night on the job in three days time at midnight.

He'd been told to wear a dark shirt that he didn't mind getting messed up and dark pants. After that Ichigo had left the club and started home so that he could celebrate his good fortune with his wife.

But before he started for home he stopped by a jewelry store or two to see if they could make Honey's wedding ring and after finding a place and laying down a little information about the design, Ichigo got a good idea about how much it would cost and decided to go ahead and give the green light to have the piece made then left the store feeling like he was walking on cloud nine.

He loved when things simply fell into place. It made his job so much easier.

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Ishin hated when things like pesky abusive in laws appeared.

It always made him want to do bodily harm to someone. Kind of like he wanted to hurt someone now. He had himself firmly placed between Honey and her father and older brother with a murderous look on his face while poor Honey had her face buried against the back of his shirt. He could feel the girl's slender body shaking and could tell that she was dangerously close to freaking out in a bad way.

But for the moment he had to address the two low lifes dirtying his son's home with their presence. "What the hell do you think your doing barging into someone else's home? Remove yourselves _now_ or face the consequences." Ishin growled at the two, not feeling the least bit inclined to be polite.

"Shut up. We're here for that girl. Hand her over before one of us decides to call the cops and tell them that you kidnapped her." Shishi said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Ishin didn't so much as react to the threat.

There was nothing that her family could do as long as Honey was married to Ichigo. Ishin knew his son enough to know that he _knew_ this and that he had started to take steps to make sure that her family couldn't get their marriage annulled.

"You can go ahead and do that if you really want too. I'll bet that they'll be interested in taking a look of the medical files I have on her. You know, about what you've been doing to her."

Shishi and Miki both stared at him wide eyed in shock as Ishin dug into his right pants pocket and pulled out his cell and quickly hit speed dial and the number one and then set his phone down and gave the two an evil smirk and said in a mock cheerful tone, "Gentlemen, take a seat so we can talk about this civilly."

The two sputtered and started to shake their heads no as Ishin gave them a cold smile and said, "You should do as your told. Before I lose my temper and decide to _break_ off your arms and legs."

The two hesitated for a moment or so longer, then with mutinous looks they walked over to the small table that Ichigo and Honey had put together to serve as their dining room table and sat down. Ishin smirked and then turned to Honey and whispered for her to leave the room.

Honey looked at him through wide haunted eyes and headed for the hallway when Miki caught her by the wrist and jerked her down into the seat next to him and gave Ishin a cocky look that the older man _longed_ to wipe off of the punks fucking face. He cast Honey a quick look and sat down across from them and silently prayed that they would behave until Ichigo got home and could take care of them. And settled himself in his chair to buy his son enough time to get there.

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Ichigo was a half block from his house when his cell rang. Swearing softly he dug into his shirt pocket, his heart thudding in his chest as he flipped his phone open and put it to his ear expecting to hear Orihime's voice. But instead he heard his father's voice growl on the other end of the line. _"Gentelmen, take a seat so we can talk about this civilly."_

Ichigo cocked his head and frowned, wondering if he dad had accidentally called him and listened a little more and caught the distinct sounds of two other male voices as they started to talk.

Ichigo started walking faster, a sinking feeling settling in his gut and his heart nearly stopped when he heard Honey's name mentioned. He hung up the phone and stuffed it into his pants pocket and started running.

His need to reach his defensless wife driving him to run as fast as he could, to jump fences, to run out in front of cars. He had to do everything in his power to reach his home before Honey was taken away.

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Miki had his hand between her legs. Touching her through her clothes. Letting her know what he was planning to do to her once he had her back at the house, alone.

Honey blinked back tears of fear and shame and hung her head as she subtly tried to remove his hand from her lap. Trying desperately not to call his actions to Ishin's attention. It was just so humiliating that she wasn't sure how she would react if Ichigo's father found her being fingered by her brother.

But Miki was being difficult and kept slapping her hands in an effort to get her to stop.

Resistance wasn't allowed. He slipped his hand under her skirt and glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes and gave her a wicked grin as he managed to force his hand inside of her panties. Honey twitched and bit her lower lip and gripped his wrist as hard as she could, digging her sharp little nails into his skin, trying to hurt him enough to get him to stop as tears slipped down her ashen face.

_Help. Someone help. Please-_ She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to be in the same room as her father and brother. Didn't want to see their faces or hear their voices. Miki pushed a finger inside of her and Honey quickly let go of his wrist and slapped her hands over her mouth and doubled over so that her head was resting on the table and tried not to make a sound.

_Help! Ichigo! I'm scared!_ She thought as her stomach lurched dangerously. She could feel bile burning the back of her throat and couldn't help but wish that she would throw up so that she could throw up on Miki. That would make him stop touching her.

It would earn her a beating, but at least he would stop touching her in such a sickening way.

Ishin looked at her, a frown etched into his features. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask his daughter-in-law what was wrong. When he noticed that her brother was sitting a little strangely and narrowed his eyes as he studied him for a second before realizing in _shock_ and _horror_ that the little shit was touching her.

And Honey was so scared and ashamed of what was happening that she felt that she couldn't trust him enough to help her.

He started to get up out of his seat when suddenly the front door swung open violently and banged into the plaster of the wall behind it.

Ishin, the two assholes and Honey all looked towards the door wondering what was going on now when Ichigo stepped through the door with a fierce expression on his face, his amber eyes going from Ishin's face to Honey's automatically before he took a step further into the room.

His expression morphed to one of murderous rage as his eyes locked with the two unwelcome guests as Ishin planted one hand on the table and swung one leg out towards the teen. Catching the younger of the two men in the bottom of his jaw, snapping his head back on his neck dangerously and sent the teen sprawling to the floor as he reached across the table and wrapped an arm around Honey and pulled her up and back towards him, out of the way as Ichigo walked across the room.

His expression softening a little bit as he walked over to his dad and Honey and reached out and took the crying girl from his father and hugged her close to his chest and kissed her forehead as he glared at her father over the top of her head and said in a low rumbling growling tone, "Don't cry anymore baby. I'm here now and I'll _make_ them leave."

_Even if I have to murder them to do so._ He thought darkly as he rubbed his wife's back soothingly for a moment before he let her go and walked over to her dad and grabbed him by his shirt then grabbed the teen laying on the floor bleeding by his hair and dragged them both outside kicking and screaming.


	16. Chapter 16

_Ichigo couldn't recall a time he'd felt as furious as he was now. Nor could he recall a time he'd felt so guilty for letting someone down. The two men thrashing in his grip and screaming loud enough to wake the dead, had much to answer for. _

_And once he was finished ripping them apart he would go back inside and try to sooth and apologize to his wife as best as he could. _

_He dragged the two men around to the small alley at the side of the house and threw them both against the fence there and snarled. "Who the fuck do you two think you are to come to my home and cause trouble?" Ichigo lifted one leg and planted his foot in the small empty space between their shoulders earning loud yelps from the two before the older of the two growled. _

_"Who the hell are you to dictate to us-" He didn't finish his sentance. _

_Ichigo's temper was raging almost out of control and the man's disrespectful attitude pissed him off further causing him to lash out and punch the man as hard as he could. The sickening crack of flesh meeting flash echoed in the small area as Ichigo watched the man go down before turning his attention to the younger man. _

_The guy was about his age, and had cold dead eyes that disgusted Ichigo. "We have every right to be here!" The guy hissed at Ichigo furiously. Ichigo gave him a cold smile and made an upper cut like motion with one of his hands and seized the guy in a vise like grip and lifted him up off of the ground an inch or so and said in an eerily calm voice. _

_"You have no rights where my wife is concerned." _

_There was a sickening crack followed by a shrill scream of agony and Ichigo dropped the teen to the ground and smirked evilly at him as he curled up in a ball to hide the damage that Ichigo had just done to his face. _

_"That was one bone. Lets see how many others I can break before you pass out."_

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Two hours later-

Ishin sat back in his desk chair and massaged his temples as his phone rang again for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past five minutes. The damn nurses over a Karakura General Hospital couldn't follow a simple order it seemed.

It had been two hours since Ichigo had come home from his job hunt and found Honey's worthless father and brother in the house, wanting her back. Two hours since his son had gone mid evil on both of their asses in the alley between his home and a fenced it yard.

Two hours when he had broken over thirty of the father's bones and twenty of Honey's brother's bones, one of which happened to have been his jaw. Ishin looked over the two files of his latest patients and cringed a little bit.

Broken bones, fractures, contusions, brain swelling, internal bleeding- Shishi and Miki really were very lucky that Ichigo hadn't been of a mind to kill them though his son had every right too.

Especially after Ishin had stupidly let slip what Miki had been doing to Honey before Ichigo had showed up. The former soul reaper had never seen his son react as _violently_ as he had to anything. It had taken Ishin almost every ounce of strength he possessed just to pull Ichigo off of Miki before he could kill him.

His office went silent and Ishin sighed and let his head fall back against the back of his chair. Oh thank god, the phone stopped ringing. He had been starting to entertain thoughts or ripping the cord out of the wall. But couldn't do that right now.

He had told Ichigo that if he needed anything for Honey then he could call. And though Honey had seemed to calm down considerably once Ichigo had gone back inside and wrapped his arms around her and sat down in the floor and simply held her for a little while, Ishin had this feeling deep down inside that Ichigo would be calling him before the night was done.

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Ichigo leaned over Honey, his face a hairsbreath from her own, his forehead lightly touching hers, his expression pained. Honey hadn't moved, spoken, cried, or even reacted to his presence since he had come back inside to comfort her.

She had simply lain limply in his arms, staring blankly ahead, her pretty violet eyes devoid of any signs of consciousness or life. It was as if she were a doll, helpless and at the mercy of it's owners whims.

She was starting to scare him.

He kissed her forehead, her pale cheeks, and then slipped his arms under her and pulled her up off of the mattress so that he could hold her again.

Not knowing what else to do he settled himself back against the head board with a pillow behind his back. He carefully arranged Honey in his lap and alternated between talking to her, kissing her temple, combing his fingers through her dark hair and quietly crying for failing to protect her like he had sworn he would.


	17. Chapter 17

He must have stayed like that for all night before realizing that Honey had finally fallen asleep and finally laid her on the bed and tucked her in before stretching out beside her and wrapping himself around her. Needing to stay close to her even now so that she would know that he was there if she needed him.

He managed to get about two hours sleep before he felt Honey shift next to him and woke up to find her laying there with her eyes open again. But this time was different. She was blinking and- She was looking at him.

Not through him like she had a few hours ago, but actually looking _at_ him. He raised up on one elbow and looked down at her with a worried look on his face. "Honey? Are you okay, sweetheart?"

She gave him a blank look for a second then burst into tears, startling Ichigo a little bit.

He bristled at first, not entirely sure what to do to comfort her. He had never liked seeing a girl cry after all. Yet after a moment he awkwardly wrapped his arms around her and held her and let her cry figuring that she had been holding shit in long enough and nice long cry would be good for her.

She cried herself back to sleep in under ten minutes. Slightly put off/bemused by the fact that she had cried so hard that she had cried herself to sleep in such a short span of time, Ichigo sighed and rubbed the back of his neck then tucked her back in again.

And then silently slipped from the bed so that he could go call their school and tell them that they wouldn't be attending for a the next few days so that Honey could recover.

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Honey slept all day that day. Not even waking up when Ichigo tried to get her up to eat some of the food that his dad had brought by for them since their kitchen was in ruins. Leaving Ichigo to his own vices for the entire day and night.

He rolled out of bed the next day and quietly slipped from the room to shower and get dressed and waited until about noon before deciding that Honey really needed to wake up and eat something and maybe get out of bed and move around.

He got up off of the living room floor where he had been doing push ups for the past five hours in an effort to burn some of his nervous energy and walked down the hall to the bed room and quietly pushed the door open and looked inside of the room. He was only mildly surprised to find that Honey wasn't in bed, and could hear the faint sounds of the shower running.

Sighing in relief that she was finally up, he made a split second descision to go into the bathroom and check on her a little more thoroughly and grasped the door knob in his hand and opened the door.

He peeked inside nervously, wondering if this was really the right thing to do after what had happened with her family and yet he simply couldn't _not_ check on her like this. It wasn't like he was planning to peep or anything. He may be a guy, but he wasn't so disrespectful as to peep on an innocent girl without permission. Besides Honey was his wife and he was worried about her. What if she succomed to despair and decided to slit her wrists?

He didn't think he'd be able to handle failing to protect her again in such a profound way. He pushed the door open a little ways and after putting a hand over his eyes (just in case) slipped through the crack and made his way over to the counter and sat down and listened for any signs of distress.

"Honey?" He said in a tentative tone and jumped when he heard his wife squeak and drop something. From the loudness of the thud it must have either been the soap or a bottle of shampoo.

"I-I-Ichigo? What are you doing in here?"

"I'm sorry, sweetheart but I was worried so I kind of came in to check on you." There was a heart beat of silence followed by the sound of the shower curtain moving aside a little bit before she said.

"You're eyes are covered."

Ichigo's lips twitched a little bit. "Yeah. I didn't want you to feel like I was trying to be a perv or anything."

Another heartbeat of silence stretched out between them before she muttered, "Well as long as you aren't peeking I guess it's fine."

"Do you need anything?" Ichigo asked, hoping that she might give him some menial task to help her feel better. He heard her shut off the water and despite the fact that his eyes were covered and he couldn't see her, his face flushed and his blood preassure shot through the roof as his mind imagined her stepping out of the shower in front of him.

He bit his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood as he felt the air stir just to his...left? "You can look now." Honey said from directly in front of him and Ichigo started to drop his hand away from his eyes before catching himself and blurted out in a strained tone.

"Dressed?"

"I'm wearing a robe."

Ichigo dropped his hand a little bit, and gave her a quick wary look. Half expecting her to scream and slap him or maybe pull what Orihime had that one time he had accidentally walked in on her while she was changing out of her school uniform, and poke him in the eyes. But Honey did neither of those things. Which wasn't exactly encouraging. In fact it was something that worried him greatly as he looked her over.

Trying not to notice how vulnerable and innocent she looked in her silk rode.

He swallowed past the lump in his throat and laced his fingers together and put his hands against his upper thigh as she looked up at him before saying. "I don't want to talk about it. And nothing really can be done to erase what has happened already. So asking if I need anything is pointless."

"It's not pointless-" Ichigo said softly as he unlaced his fingers and reached out and grasped her wrists in his hands and pulled her closer to him. And spread his legs a little bit so that they wouldn't get in the way and cupped one of her cheeks in one hand and kissed her cheek then her temple, as he ran his fingers through her thick wet hair and buried his face against her shoulder and just stayed like that for a few minutes as he tried to think of what he could do to make things better for her.


	18. Chapter 18

Honey was putting their breakfast on the table when a thought occurred to Ichigo that it might be better if they spent some time outside of the house today so that he could get yesterday's incident off of Honey's mind for a little while.

Give her a little peace. A happy memory strong enough to _replace_ the trauma for a time.

"Would you like to go out on a date today?" Ichigo asked suddenly as she started to set his plate down in front of him. She squeaked and almost dropped his plate before looking at him wide eyed.

"A-A d-d-date?" She stuttered, a shocked look on her face.

Ichigo made a humming sound and brushed some of the food that had spilled from his plate off of his lap, into his hand and put the stuff aside so that he could throw it away after he ate and waited for Honey to get over her shock and say something.

Her expression went from shocked to horrified and she took a small step away from him and the table and asked in a very soft tone. "Why?"

Ichigo looked at her, his chest aching at the sight of the look on her face. He'd do anything to wipe that look away forever. To erase every horrible thing that had ever been done to her and replace those memories with something better. Something that didn't _hurt_ her every day of her life.

"Because we need to have a proper date so that we can get to know each other better-" She opened her mouth to shoot him down, but Ichigo was determined and knew how to stop her in her tracks before she could say anything. "And if we don't get out of the house for a little bit I might try seducing you."

Honey's eyes got impossibly wider and she snapped her mouth closed for a second then thinned her lips and gave him a dark look for a second before saying, "You wouldn't-"

No sooner than the words left her mouth, Ichigo reached out and grabbed her by the front of her shirt and pulled her into his lap and gave her a savage kiss that left her senses reeling when he finally lifted his mouth from hers and said in a breathless tone, "Wouldn't I?"

Honey gave him an peculiar look and pushed against his chest, hinting that she wanted him to let her go.

But Ichigo had other things in mind. Like coaxing an answer from her through a little light petting and cuddling. Nothing too intense or damaging. Though he did make a point of giving her his fork so that she could stab him if he started to scare her. He grasped the hand without the fork in it and kissed her knuckles, then turned her hand over and kissed her palm, then the inside of her wrist before kissing her again. This time gently. Coaxingly.

He cupped the side of her face as he tangled the fingers of his other hand in her thick hair and groaned. It occurred to him after several minutes of kissing his wife that his plan to coax an answer out of him just might back fire on him. Not that it mattered much to him. Ichigo loved holding Honey like this. Loved kissing and touching and playing with her hair.

He felt the fork in her hand poke against his chest and made a small sound of frustration as he pulled back so that he could apologize to her for scaring her and got a look of comical horror on his face as Honey immidiately started gasping for air and then looked at him and muttered, "Sorry. Couldn't breathe."

He blinked and then laughed softly and hugged her. "Sorry. Didn't mean to partially suffocate you." He said as he skimmed his lips along the curve of her cheek.

"That's alright... I can breathe now." He tucked a strand of her hair behind one of her ears and smiled faintly.

"Thats good. Now, about that date-"

"Your really determined huh?"

"Yeah. I am."

Honey sighed and rested her head on his shoulder for a second. "Alright. A proper date would be...nice." Ichigo made a humming sound and kissed the top of her head then let her go so that she could get up.

"Alright then. We'll go after we eat and get ready."


	19. Chapter 19

Ichigo hadn't been able to take his eyes off of Honey since they left the house. It wasn't that she was getting away from him or even getting into trouble. No, it had nothing to do with that. It was the way that she was dressed. He didn't know where she got the peach colored sun dress with the corset style top that showed the gentle curves of her breasts, the flair of her hips exct.

But she was a total knock out in it. Especially since she was wearing three of the ribbons he'd brought her. One around her neck, the one seving as her wedding band for the moment and the one in her hair.

There was just one tiny draw back to having his wife wearing such a dress.

And it had cost five guys their front teeth already. Because every time Ichigo noticed a guy staring at her, he _punched_ them in the face.

Ichigo dropped the guy in his grasp as Honey turned around to look at him, no doubt trying to see what he was up too and Ichigo felt himself taking evasive maneuvers to keep from getting into trouble with her.

This was their first date after all and he didn't want anything to _ruin_ it.

He quickly ran up to her and scooped her up in his arms and spun her around, subtly moving them farther away from the guy he'd just knocked out before putting her down. "Your acting strange." Honey said in a suspiscious tone as her feet touched the pavement. Ichigo didn't even bat an eye, he just grinned at her.

"I am?" He asked innocently as he straightened his spine.

He could already sense another three guys in the general area that were looking at her. It made his blood boil that these morons didn't seem capable of taking a hint and going to chase some other man's wife. Honestly Ichigo had never thought of himself as the jealous type before, but he was quickly getting to the point where he was going to do _serious_ harm to the next guy that-

Just then a man in a grey suit started towards them. Ichigo hugged Honey to his chest and spun them around and nailed the guy in the face with his foot and sent him flying a good ten or so feet away before he let go of Honey who gave him a disgruntled look. "What did you just do?" She asked.

"Nothing."

"Then why do I get the feeling like you've just done something?"

"No clue." Ichigo said as he thought. _Whoa. She has pretty good instincts, huh? _Honey looked around him and saw the grey suited guy laying on the ground and gasped and grabbed his arm.

"Ichigo that man over there collapsed!"

Ichigo looked at the man like he'd like to stomp on him a few times and made a humming sound and muttered. "How about that..." He grasped her hand in his, lacing their fingers together and said cheerfully. "Well, lets go."

"But what about-" Honey started to ask him what the man in the suit. He looked like he needed help. But Ichigo cut her off as he started to pull her along.

"He's fine. He probably just needed to sit down or something." Honey gave him an leery look. Not quite believing that the man had needed to sit down and simply collapsed at random. That sounded too weird.

"But-"

"No buts. Come on. We'll miss the train!"


	20. Chapter 20

Merry Christmas!

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News spread quickly through the Soul Scociety about Ichigo's marriage. And after about two living world days, before Yoruichi knew it the thirteen guard squads and their captans were dressed in human attire, each one holding colorfully wrapped gifts and demanding that she take them to meet Ichigo and his wife to wish them well.

To say that Yoruichi was amused by this development was an understatment. Especially since it would bug Ichigo to no end. However instead of taking them to the living world right away, she made a deal with them, explaining that Ichigo was still on his honeymoon and would need another week or so before she could take them to him.

Some understood.

Some didn't.

But the end result was the same.

She'd bought some time for Ichigo to spend with his wife and bond, after that time was up- all bets were off. And he'd have everyone from the thirteen guard squads beating down his door dying to meet the little ball of fluff that he was bound too.

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Ichigo was hating the cramped train ride more and more by the minute. Everytime he turned around (figuratively) some jackass was pressing up against Honey- Sometimes on accident and sometimes it wasn't an accident.

Either way some poor bastard wound up laying on his back on the floor, bleeding. And by the time he and Honey reached their stop, Ichigo had already sworn to himself that after the trip home, he and his wife were never taking the train again. _Ever_.

He stepped off of the train, pulling Honey along behind him by her hand and growled warningly when someone bumped into her causing her to stagger and squeak. God why did there have to be so many people out and about today? He wondered as they kept going until he turned around to ask Honey if she wanted to stop and get something to eat somewhere.

And caught a guy lifting up the back of her skirt to look at her and automatically sprang into action and kicked the son of a bitch in the face and made a point to stomp on him a few times out of sheer meanness. Once he was done he grasped Honey's hand again and more or less dragged her away from the bleeding, twitching man before the bastard managed to sneak a peek at her panties.

"Ichigo! Ichigo, why did you do that?" Honey asked as they ran up the steps leading to the street before Ichigo stopped and turned to look at her, his gold brown eyes a touch wary because he didn't want to upset her and risk ruining their first date.

"Why did I do what?" He asked innocently in a breathless tone.

"W-Why did you beat that man up?" _Because he was trying to feel you up._ Ichigo thought darkly, inwardly seething. Why was it there there was nothing but dirty old men out today? And why the _hell_ were they focused on his wife? Sure Honey looked otherworldly beautiful and sexy in her dress, with her hair pulled back by her ribbons.

But couldn't the people out today focus on trying to take advantage of someone else? He was trying to woo his bride, he wanted to be alone with her, to walk around and hold hands kiss and show her that he could be romantic. It was_ important_ to him that he do these things with her though he didn't understand why.

Perhaps it was because he wanted to establish a bond that had nothing to do with sex. Or perhaps it was something that he could use to bring her out of her shell. Whatever his reasons, he didn't dare voice them because she would be suspicious of his motives and think that he was out to hurt her like her father and brother had been.

And that was the last thing he wanted considering that he was trying his damndest to protect her.

She reached out and pushed his shoulder, jolting him out of his own thoughts. Causing him to snatch her hand in his and bring it to his lips and kiss her palm before he let her go and said. "He was trying to do something funny and needed a good beating."

"But Ichigo you-" Ichigo sighed, getting the feeling that she wasn't going to drop the subject and quickly wrapped his arms around her and pulled her flush against his body and pressed his mouth against hers hoping that a nice thorough kiss might distract her.

Honey made the cutest startled sound as he tangled his fingers in her dark hair and slipped his tongue inside of the sweet, moist cavern of her mouth. Stealing her breath. Then as quickly as it started, he ended the kiss and pulled back, loosening his arms around her to the point where she managed to stagger back a step or two feeling dizzy.

He chuckled and grasped her shoulders to keep her from staggering back too far and falling down the steps and steadied her before taking her hand again. "Come on. I want to get to our destination before it gets too late."


	21. Chapter 21

The garden that Ichigo took her to was _beautiful_.

Hands down it had to be the most magical, amazing, and lovely place she had ever seen before in her life. It was a traditional garden full of trees, fragrant flowers that bloomed all year long. Creeks and streams that ran into Koi ponds full of colorful fish with lotus flowers floating at the surface of the ponds.

There were small replica's of japanese style buildings that served as cafe's and tea houses.

They walked around for a few hours, hand in hand before Ichigo said something about getting something to eat and led her out of the garden. Pausing just for a second before the gate and picked a wild rose from one of the bushes lining the walk way and tucked the small white flower behind one of her ears then smiled and kissed her knuckles and led her out the gate and back onto the street.

He bought them dinner at a local restaurant that had just opened up. Then he took her to the club he got a job at and asked his boss if it was okay if they hung out and danced a little bit. The man agreed as long as they behaved themselves, stayed away from the booze and he got to meet Honey.

All of which were fairly simple requests that Ichigo agreed too without hesitation.

He introduced his boss to Honey and watched the man smile and shake her hand before waving them into the club. The music was crazy loud, the bass peircing as it pumped out a techno beat. He saw Honey cringe and look a little bit uncomfortable.

He stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her and slowly swayed them both to the music until a slower and more appealing song started to play. He then turned her around to face him and wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her flush against him and softly sang to her as he led her around.

He didn't think he had ever felt so nervous as he did in that moment when their bodies brushed up against one another, with one arm around her waist and the other holding her hand, their fingers laced together. Honey looked captivating under the strobe light. The vivid greens, yellows, reds, pinks and purples adding color to her appearance and made her look like a goddess painting brought to life.

His lips curved up a bit at the corners. _A goddess painting huh?_ His mind whispered almost mockingly as he silently agreed with the voices in his head. Damn right. She was _his_ goddess.

His wife. _His_ Honey.

_My precious angel. _Ichigo thought as the song ended just as he leaned his head down and brushed his lips across hers in a feather light caress and was more than a little surprised when she raised up on her tip toes and kissed him back. He jerked a little bit as if he'd just been electrocuted and looked at her with a dumbfounded look on his face before he licked his lips and kissed her again.

This time adding a little more pressure behind the contact. He licked along her bottom lip, trying to coax her into opening for him and groaned when she parted her lips and let him slip his tongue inside of her mouth.

His heart pounded against his ribs, his stomach fluttered strangely, his breath hitched in his throat as he slipped his free hand through her dark silken hair and gripped it in his fist. Then as quickly as it started he released her and took a step back feeling shaken and breathless.

Honey looked like she was in the same boat herself. She had her arms wrapped around her middle and her face was a vivid pink even in the almost darkness. He took a moment or so to regain control of himself then reached out and took her hand again and leaned down and said in a husky tone that she had no problem hearing over the music. "Let's go home."

Honey stared up at him for a moment then ducked her head and nodded and followed him out of the club suddenly knowing what was on his mind. And for once she didn't feel the least bit scared.


	22. Chapter 22

Ow, ya'll are lucky this chapter got posted at all since I accidentally dumped scalding hot soup on my left hand erlier and suffered some second degree burns. I have blood blisters along my fingers, and I'm not totally sure but I think part of my finger print on three of my fingers are now gone...

Anyways, here's some fluff. Enjoy.

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Ichigo nearly tripped over his feet just to open the door for her. He was so anxious and excited about having her all to himself that everything that had been in his mind before- every doubt, every worry- had simply fled his mind upon re turning home. It wasn't that he thought they'd have sex or anything. To be perfectly honest he hadn't thought that far ahead and would be more than a little shocked and surprised if that happened.

Right now all he cared about was her- _his_ wife. His Honey.

He wanted to hold her so badly that his arms were aching. The door to their home swung open and banged against the wall inside as Ichigo stepped back and glanced at Honey to see if she was ready for what came next. Or rather for the _giant_ step towards what would come next.

She looked at him as he held his hand out to her and waited, expectantly for her to take his hand in hers. He was more than a little stunned to find her small hand wrap around his own almost without hesitation.

"Do you think that you can handle what happens next without freaking out too badly?" Ichigo found himself asking half curiously, half warningly.

She looked up at him as she stepped over the thresh hold and stopped just inside the door, waiting for him to join her. Ichigo stood there for a second, dumbstruck by her. It must have showed in his expression because he saw her smile at him and that was it.

That was all the encouragement he needed to step into the house and kick the door closed and scoop her up in his arms and head for the bedroom.

Once there he set her down on the bed and kissed her, startling her a little bit with his excitment. Yet she didn't push him away. Instead she simply wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight as he braced his hands on either side of her shoulders and kissed her deeply. Stealing her breath bit by bit every time their lips met and parted.

He continued to kiss her senseless as he leaned down a bit more until he was resting on his elbows, his hands fisted in her thick dark hair as he drew back a little bit and smiled when she tried to come up off of the mattress after him. He made an noncommental sound in the back of his throat and leaned back down just enough to run his tongue along her bottom lip.

Tasting himself on her before sealing his mouth over hers again.

Honey tasted like her name sake, so sweet and pure. Everything that Ichigo had ever imagined in his future mate. So saying that he was reluctant to move away from her and end things before they became too heated would be an understatement.

He didn't want to move. Didn't want to seperate from her for even an instant. But he had to do what was best for Honey since he doubted that she was ready to completely be his. After all re writing years of trauma and abuse didn't happen overnight.

He still had to condition her body and mind to accept him in small ways, so jumping the gun and having his wicked way with her right now was totally out of the question. Besides, he'd never forgive himself if he accidentally did more harm to her just to ease his own discomfort.

He pulled back a little bit and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek then lifted his head to look at her.

She really did look like a goddess painting come to life with her face covered with her dark hair fanned out around her head, a soft pink flush, and her lips swollen and glistening from his kisses. His heart thudded in his chest as he used a slightly shaking hand to smooth her hair back from her face. She gave him a questioning look, her eyes reflecting her thoughts.

Why was he stopping? Didn't he want to go further?

He smiled and shook slowly shook his head in response to her unasked questions. It simply wasn't time yet.

When he finally took her- and he would, he couldn't fool himself into thinking otherwise at this point- he wanted everything to be perfect for her. He wanted satin sheets and flowers for her. Softly played music and candle light.

"Just wait a bit longer to be sure I'm what you want." He finally said as he pushed away from her and the bed and turned and quietly left the room so that she would have a few minutes to collect her thoughts before she came looking for him.

Honey lay on the bed, feeling the sudden loss of Ichigo's warmth and shivered. Would it always be like this? She wondered. Everytime she thought she was finally ready to move forward with her life, would she always be left bereft?


	23. Chapter 23

Honey became eerily silent after that. Her good mood evaporating like rain drops on a sunny day. And Ichigo, no matter how much he coaxed her, simply couldn't seem to restore her former mood. He didn't understand it.

Nor did he like it.

He felt like he was being punished for something that he didn't do. It was...well, _irritating_.

He turned in his seat and stared at his wife's back for what seemed like the umpteenth time in the past hour and observed her as she made their dinner. His mind going over the days events in an effort to try and figure out the maddening problem with Honey.

So far he was coming up with a whole lot of blanks. _What was wrong? What had he done to upset her? _He supposed that he could just ask her, but... Wouldn't that just upset her more to have to explain to him the reason why she was upset? He sighed and got up out of his seat and quietly made his way over to where Honey stood with her back to him and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck.

Honey stiffened a little bit in his grasp but then relaxed as he swept her hair back and trailed his lips along her throat to her shoulder and lightly bit her to see if she would react. She made a soft 'uh' sound but other wise didn't move or react to the pressure of his teeth latching onto her skin.

Frowning at being ignored, Ichigo decided to press a bit further and slowly slipped his hands under the fabric of her shirt and skimmed his fingertips along her ribs until he reached her chest. He cupped her breasts through her bra and perked up a little bit when she twitched and sighed and set the spatula in her hand aside.

Ah, she couldn't continue ignoring him if he was touching her like this. "What are you doing Ichigo?" She asked in a peeved tone as she turned the stove eyes on low and then turned around in his arms.

"Trying to get your attention-" He said as he removed his hands from her breasts and asked in a slightly worried tone. "Did I go too far just now?"

"No Ichigo. Touching is fine." She said tiredly.

He pulled his hands out from under her shirt and grasped her shoulders and bent down a little bit to look her in the eye with a concerned look on his face. "Did I go too far earlier? Is that why you're upset now?" Honey looked at him funny and sighed. God men were thick skulled creatures. A woman gives them the green light for sex and they pull back thinking they've gone too far.

She didn't understand his line of thinking. Well, okay that wasn't necessarily true. She sort of understood his concerns.

Especially since he had been going to such great pains to make her feel safe and comfortable with him. He'd been trying to overwrite the abusive pattern that she had gotten used too to give her a sense of normalcy. And while she appreciated his doing that.

There were other things that bugged her. Some that possibly even bugged him as well. "Honey? Will you please tell me what's bugging you?" Ichigo asked as he slipped his hands up to frame her face. Honey sighed. Geez, how was she supposed to put things into words and tell him what was on her mind when he had such a worried look on his face?

It made her feel ashamed for wanting to be with him when he looked at her like that. "I-I'm n-n-not s-sure- T-The thing o-of it is-" Ichigo frowned as she stammered and started to fidget a little bit with the ribbon around her wrist and he snagged her hand in his and lifted her wrist to his lips and kissed the spot over her veins.

"Take your time, honey. I don't mind waiting until you can think of a way to say whats on your mind. I just wanted you to know that you're safe here. I won't let anyone hurt you."

"_I know that_." Honey started to snap but caught herself at the last moment and looked a bit uncomfortable. Ichigo let go of her hand and sighed as he stepped back away from her as she muttered, "Dammit, I'm sorry Ichigo. I just don't know what to say to you."

"Then just say what you feel." He said gently as he leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest to wait as she suddenly blurted out.

"I wanted to go all the way!" His expression went mercifully blank from the sheer _shock_ of hearing his sweet, shy wife say those words to him as his mind came to a screetching halt before kicking into gear again.

_Oh, so that's what's bugging her... Wait. Did she just say what I thought she said? _He wondered as a vivid red flush worked it's way up to his face before he slapped a hand over his nose and mouth and looked away from her. Man oh man, out of all the things he'd expected her to say- that hadn't been anywhere near the top of the list.

He felt her hand on his arm and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She saw his look and seemed to think he was angry or something because she let her hand fall away from his arm and took a step back looking sad and lost.

He took a moment or so to compose himself and lowered his hand away from his face and asked in a deadly serious tone. "Is that what you really want?" Honey blushed and gave him a deer caught in the headlights/embarrassed look and then nodded her head.

Ichigo said nothing more, he merely turned the stove eyes off and grabbed Honey up in his arms and headed back to the bedroom.


	24. Chapter 24

"W-Wait! Ichigo! Our food-" Honey started to protest when her husband cut her off.

"Will be fine until we're done." Ichigo said as he slipped into the bedroom and set his wife on her feet in front of him then used one foot to kick the door closed before turning his attention back to her and slipped his fingers through her silken hair as he lowed his mouth to hers for a quick, hungry kiss.

He'd admit that her confession had stunned him, and even seemed a little strange to him considering how things had gone down the other day with her father and brother. However she seemed to genuinely want this.

And god knew that he'd been walking around in an uncomfortable state ever since earlier.

So maybe being intimate with her wouldn't be such a bad thing for them both. He already knew a bit about what was acceptable to her. Like not being pinned down. And he had been _encouraging_ her to speak up a bit more about when she was scared so that if he was frightening her, he'd know that he should back off.

He pulled back a little bit, breaking the kiss so that he could run the pad of his thumb along her bottom lip and asked her again in a rough, gravelly voice. "Do you really want this?" _Or are you so scared of your family that your willing to give yourself to someone you don't want just to escape having someone else take you? _Ichigo wondered as he waited for her to answer him.

Honey reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted herself up onto her tip toes and kissed the corner of his lips. "I want this."

"You say that, but once this is done there can be no going back." Ichigo said warningly as he wrapped his arms around her. She pulled back a little bit and looked up at him with a puzzled expression on her face and hesitantly said,

"I know that."

"Do you? I wonder." Ichigo said as he lifted her up until her feet came off of the floor as he moved away from the door and started towards the bed.

"Do you know what I would do if someone ever tried to touch you? If someone ever tried to hurt you or take you from me?" He asked as he tossed her onto the bed and let her bounce a few times as he pulled his shirt up over his head and dropped it onto the floor at his feet.

Honey looked up as the mattress creaked under his weight and found him hovering over her with an peculiar expression on his face.

"I'm serious Honey. Love me or hate me, once we're joined- there will be no walking away. No regrets. _I'll never let you go_. Do you understand?" _Do you accept my vows? Do you- no can you- accept me? _Ichigo wondered as he leaned down and kissed her lips softly. Knowing very well that she couldn't answer him if he had her occupied. But he found that he couldn't help himself.

He just wanted to kiss her so badly.

To take what he could of this moment and not _worry_ or _fear_ about whether he was doing the wrong thing by indulging her. He pressed his body a bit closer and applied a little more pressure to her lips and groaned when he felt her tongue shyly touch his own before retreating back into her mouth, as he gripped some of her hair in his hands.

He felt her small hands wrap around his wrists and loosened his hold on her hair and pulled away a bit to ask her if he had hurt her when he felt her hands slowly make their way up his arms to his shoulders where she gripped him and pulled at him, wanting him closer. He captured her lips again and ravished her while lowering himself until he was settled on his elbows above her. Their bodies touching, though just barely.

Ichigo wondered if Honey had noticed yet that she was pinned. Part of him worried that she might freak out, but just as quickly as the thought crossed his mind- he dismissed it figuring that as long as Honey trusted him to know when she couldn't stand being under him anymore, that he'd let her up.

He lifted his mouth from her own and nuzzled the curve of her cheek and brushed his lips along her skin until he reached her ear. He ran his tongue along the shell of her ear causing her to gasp and twitch slightly. Her hands once again going to his wrists, her fingers gripping them. His lips quirked as he buried his face against her throat and gently sucked at the skin over her artery causing her to tremble as a low moan escaped her throat.

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Yorouichi stood outside the cozy little house that Iishin had bought for Ichigo, with all thirteen of the captian's guard plus a few of Ichigo's favorite friends. Each of them holding bags full of food and snacks and wine to celebrate Ichigo's marriage.

"Is this where Ichigo is really going to live with his wife?" Byakuya asked curiously as he looked the house over. It wasn't that it was a bad place. It was just that- in his mind it looked like little more than a run down hut like the ones seen in the Rukon district. It was smaller than he had anticipated it would be and he wondered if Ichigo would be able to properly entertain them while they visited.

That and he suddenly felt like their visit was going to be unnecissarily taxing on Ichigo's bride. Something that may not sit well with the substitute shinigami since it meant that his wife would have less time and attention for him until they left.

"Yes. Iishin wanted them to be close by just in case the girl's family tried to take her from Ichigo. _Oops_." Yorouichi said as she realised what she'd just said was far too much and slapped a hand over her mouth as all eyes turned to her.

The captians took her little slip up fairly well though she got the sense that some were curious, while others smoldered with silent anger.

Ah, yes. They were all going to have a wonderful time.


	25. Chapter 25

Yorouichi backed away from the group of Ichigo's friends and comrades whom were suddenly surrounding her and mentally kicked herself as Byakuya, Renji, Rukia, Toshiro, Ikkaku, Kenpachi and several others closed in on her, _menacingly_.

"What did you mean, 'Just in case her family tries to take her'?" Byakuya asked, his normally blank expression dark.

Yorouichi made a strained sound behind her hand and looked at him wide eyed as Renji asked, "Is Ichigo's wife in some sort of trouble? Does Ichigo know?"

Ukitake frowned at the bunch and was about to say something when he saw Ichigo's dad come out of the house/clinic just a few places down and look around. He looked at them and frowned for a second before lifting a hand to wave as Rukia spotted him. "Daddy Kurosaki!" She cried excitedly as she broke away from the group, startling her older brother as she ran up to the man and hugged him as he cried.

"Rukia! Long time no see- How have you been?"

"I've been doing well. I actually came to see Ichigo. My friends and I all heard that he had gotten married so we came to visit and meet the bride."

"Oh, I'm sure that Honey will like that." Iishin said as he let go of Rukia and ruffled her dark hair affectionately as Byakuya walked up, deciding to leave Yorouichi's interrogation to the others for the moment.

He had always heard about Iishin Kurosaki from his little sister but he had never actually seen or spoke to him. Not even that time he'd shown up in traditional shinigami style to help fight Aizen.

Iishin looked at him as he stopped just within arms reach of him and looked him over like he was sizing him up for a coffin though his demeanor didn't change in the slightest. "Honey? Is that her name?" Rukia asked curiously.

Iishin looked away from Byakuya to smile down at her. "Yeah, Honey Miyoji. Cute name right?" Rukia giggled in amusement. The name sounded like it belonged to an anime character, really.

Byakuya however didn't find the name amusing in the least. In fact, he felt a small thrill of excitment race down his spine upon hearing the woman's name. The feeling stemming from some of the research he'd done on his wife and the family she had, both living and dead.

Among one of the names he'd run across was the name Miyoji. A cousin to his late wife and sister. _Is it possible? Is the woman we came to meet my beloved late wife's cousin? _He wondered anxiously as Iishin ruffled Rukia's hair again.

Byakuya was about to ask some Iishin some questions when there was a sudden commotion where the others were causing Iishin, Rukia, and himself to turn just in time to see Yurouichi in her cat form, running at full speed _away_ from everyone. _Well, I wonder if they got their answers... _Byakuya thought before Renji and several others screamed in fury.

"Hey you stupid neko woman! You can't run off before explaining things!" _Ah, so that would be a no then. _

"Yeah-" Ikkaku yelled as he started to materialize his spear so that he could throw it at the retreating cat form when Kenpachi knocked him in the back of the head and growled.

_"Don't. Do. That." _

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Ichigo had just slipped his shirt up over his head and dropped it onto the floor and leaned back over Honey to kiss her again when he heard the commotion outside and sighed wearily.

Oh god of all the times they had to come to visit- Why did it have to be now? He wondered as he rolled off of Honey and lay on the bed next to her panting when he felt her shift on the bed next to him.

He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to mentally prepare himself for the disappointment or even pain that he may see in her expression when he felt her hand lightly touch his chest. Slowly he opened his eyes shuttered at the look on her face as she traced a little pattern in his skin with her finger tips before slipping lower to explore his stomach and abdomen.

The sight of her hungry expression was nearly his undoing as he reached down and grabbed her wrist to keep her hand from straying too far while reaching up and hooking a hand around her nape at the same time, and pulled her down for one last kiss. After all he couldn't stay here in the bedroom. Neither of them could. Not with the others waiting outside for them.

He let go of Honey and let her pull away and wound a strand of her thick dark hair around his index finger and said in a low tone. "I'm sorry to end this so soon, sweetheart. But we have company outside that I need to greet."

Honey gave him a questioning look, but nodded her head and moved back so that he could sit up. Ichigo smiled at her and snagged his shirt up off of the floor and slipped it back over his head then headed for the door, pausing just long enough to look back at his wife. He wanted to tell her that he was sorry for his friends lack of manners. And that he'd rock her world later on once his friends were gone, but he couldn't seem to get the words out.

So he just gave her a small awkward smile then slipped out the door, leaving her alone in the bedroom to straighten her clothes and brush her hair.


	26. Chapter 26

Ichigo stepped outside of his home with a thunderous look on his face and bristled at the sheer amount of people standing on his front steps. Dear god... It was like half the soul society had decided to invade his home! There had to be close to twenty people standing there.

The captains, lieutenants- their underlings. Someone stepped into his line of vision and Ichigo looked up, and up and blinked at the bronze colored eyes of the wolf-like captain of the seventh division and tried not to let his expression show any signs of worry or unrest since he knew it would hurt the kind hearted warrior.

"Greetings Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Uh... Hi, Sanji-san." Ichigo said awkwardly as the giant handed him a medium sized bag and looked a little bit uncertain of himself as Ichigo looked down and blinked at the bag.

"Forgive the intrusion my young friend, but I was told that you had taken a bride and wanted to congradulate you both in person." Sanji said in his usual gently spoken tone. His lips turned up a little bit in a small almost shy smile. Ichigo smiled back and reached out a hand and laid it against the wolf man's arm.

"I see. Thank you for the thought." Ichigo said even as he wondered how he was going to explain a were wolf coming to visit, to Honey. Somehow he doubted saying something like, _Honey, dear, this is my giant wolf friend Sanji_, would go over well with his wife. _Maybe I can play off his appearance as cosplay or something for a movie. _Ichigo thought as Ukitake walked up wearing jeans and a pale blue sweater.

"Ichigo!" The man said happily as he bowed politely to the younger man before declaring happily, "We've brought food and gifts for you and your bride!"

Ichigo stared at him for a second, almost unable to comprehend the fact that he was wearing human clothes (after all the last time he'd seen the guy wearing anything remotely human had been when they had gone to the beach. and that had ended in a disaster where genetically spliced watermelons had attacked them) thus ending any ambitions that the substitute shinigami may have had to ever return to the beach.

Ichigo looked down at the bag, this one was bigger and heavier than the last one handed to him, and peeked inside at the veggie platter, sushi platter, meat platter and several other things that he was starting to stagger under the weight of.

_Shit!_ How much food had they brought? He wondered idly as the door to the house opened behind him and Honey poked her head out just in time for him to fall on his ass in the door way, startling her a bit.

"Ichigo! Are you alright?" She asked curiously, her face gone a little pale as Ichigo saw several of the soul reapers move in and huddle around the door to stare at her.

"I'm fine." He gritted out as he flushed with embarrassment and got to his feet and carried the bags over to the little counter that seperated the kitchen from the living room and set them down as he heard several of the shinigami introduce themselves to Honey before she invited them in.

Several of them came in, Rangiku, Toshiro, Renji, Sanji (although he had to bend and contort his body in a frightening way to do so) Kenpachi was present, which frightened Ichigo to a degree when he started sizing Honey up in a familiar and chilling manner that the shinigami recalled from his first meeting with the man. Forcing Ichigo to quickly pull his wife away from Kenpachi, leaving the man looking at him with a slightly offended look.

As if to say, _Hey! I wasn't really going to challenge her to a fight... _After which Honey almost literally wound up face to muzzle with Sanji while Ichigo mentally kicked himself for not warning her about the wolf-man even as he introduced them and hoped that she wouldn't say anything offending to the man.

After all Sanji was self conscious about his appearance. Not only that but he was a good and loyal friend. Ichigo would hate to see his feelings hurt over a misunderstanding.

However Honey didn't seem at all bothered by the wolf-man. In fact the first thing she did after introductions was ask if she could touch his ears, surprising both Ichigo _and_ Sanji. Ichigo was about to say something to his wife about how he wasn't sure Sanji would like having his ears tugged on when the wolf-man smiled and leaned down so that she could touch his ears. Earning a small girlish giggle from Honey.

Causing everyone in the room to relax and exhale the breaths that they had been holding without his realizing it. Looking around, he noted that everyone in the room had their eyes on Sanji and Honey. Some of them calculating while others were appraising.

_Ah so that's it. _Ichigo thought as it occurred to him just why Sanji was there. It wasn't just to congradulate him on his taking a bride, it was a test to see if his wife could accept some of the strangeness that seemingly followed the shinigami around. And it looked like she had just passed their test too.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or cry about that since he could already picture some of their future conversations. Like the 'ghost' one. The 'hollow' one and the 'Oh my god, what the hell is that?' one.

Yes he could already see those conversations and how they would end. _Heaven help me. _He thought as Rukia suddenly ran through the door and jumped on his back causing him to stagger a bit at the force behind her body hitting his while Byakuya stood in the door way to his home and watched his sister gush all over Ichigo before letting his eyes drift to the strange young woman in the room.

And everything in his froze as his mind started to register what he was seeing. There, laughing at a joke Renji had told, was an young woman who was the exact likeness of his late wife.


	27. Chapter 27

_Hisana? _Byakuya thought as he took a small step forward, into the house. His hand coming up without his noticing- to touch Honey- when Ichigo stepped in his path and grasped his hand, jolting him out of his shocked state just long enough to remind himself that his wife was dead. And the young woman standing a few feet away, sadly, wasn't her.

Could never be her.

She was Ichigo's wife.

"Byakuya?" Ichigo said, his tone a bit concerned.

"I'm alright." He lied as he eyed the girl while she cautiously moved to stand behind Ichigo and peered around his arm at him. Byakuya forced himself to smile pleasantly and gave a slight finger wiggle-wave. Pathetic as it was, he didn't want to frighten the girl with his haughty attitude since most people found it intimidating.

Besides, young ladies a lovely as his late wife should always smile. In a round about way, seeing them smile made him feel as if his wife was smiling. And as odd as it was, that made him happy.

"Ichigo," The girl's voice was soft, and tentative as she stared at him. Perhaps wondering why her husband had moved to keep him from getting close to her. "Is everything alright?"

Yup. She was wondering why Ichigo was standing between them.

Byakuya almost sighed when the substitute shinigami released his other hand and took a small step back so that he was behind the girl and said evenly, "Everything is fine. This is my friend Byakuya Kuchiki. You've already met his younger sister Rukia. Byakuya, this is_ my_ wife. Honey."

Byakuya nodded his head and exchanged a pleasant greeting with the girl even as his mind went over the possessive note that he'd heard in Ichigo's voice when he had introduced her.

Silly boy, he felt that he should stake his claim on the girl before the eyes of everyone in the house. As if Byakuya would dare to challenge him for her when he knew Ichigo would kill him just to win.

After all, Ichigo was a warrior with a warriors passions.

And like any other warrior- he kept what was his. He coveted it. Treasured and cherished it.

An awkward silence stretched out between himself and the married couple as Ichigo looked down at Honey while she fidgeted with a strand of her dark hair nervously. Byakuya was about to ask how the two had met when Ichigo sudden held up a finger, indicating that he should be silent and grasped Honey gently by the arm and started to steer her away from him.

Byakuya wished he could say that he was surprised by the substitute shinigami's actions. But really, he wasn't.

This was after all Ichigo's way of showing jealousy towards him.

Possibly because he felt threatened by his presence being so close to Honey. The reasons weren't totally a mystery to him, however since he was a guest- he would refrain from being overly friendly with the girl. If not for his own sake, then for Ichigo's.

(************************************************* ************************************************** ****************)

Mana stood outside the house where her step daughter was living now with a murderous look on her face.

_The little bitch. _How dare she think she could just run away from home and have her father and brother beaten up and her jewelry stolen! It was unforgivable! And after her husband and son had shown her such tender loving care.

"Go ahead and whore around with your new friends-" _You won't have them for long. _She thought with a sinister smirk on her ruby red lips. Once she caught the girl alone she'd make her pay tenfold for abandoning her family.


	28. Chapter 28

"So Ichigo," Renji said around a piece of sushi as he chewed. "How did you meet your wife?" Ichigo looked at his friend and sometimes rival with a horrified look on his face. The piece of eel sushi that he'd just picked up to eat- fell from his chopsticks as he gaped at the red head as all of the soul reapers suddenly leaned forward as if expecting some great, romantic story.

If he had been asked that question while talking with Renji outside; he would have gone mid evil on his sorry ass. But as it was he was trapped. Putting his chopsticks down on his plate, he glanced nervously at Honey knowing that she probably didn't want anyone to know about what her family had been doing to her. It would rub salt on wounds best left to heal.

But he couldn't exactly dodge the question either.

Renji and many of the other soul reapers were his friends, and were pretty sharp. They'd know if he lied to them. Just like they'd inevitably need to know the truth about his wife.

Rukia stood next to Renji, waiting like everyone else to see what Ichigo said when she felt his spirit energy take on a murderous feel as a dark look crossed his face. Renji and the others must have noticed too, because one moment everyone was laughing and joking and having fun- and the next it was as if a terrifyingly strong hollow had just walked over all of their graves.

Reacting quickly, Rukia elbowed Renji in the side with one of her sharp little elbows and said in a light tone that she hoped didn't shake, "It's okay Ichigo. You can tell us another time."

Ichigo blinked and after a heartbeat or two let out a soft sigh as his spirit energy returned to normal.

Causing everyone to relax again with the exception of Honey who looked from one face to another with a confused look on her face. _What was that strange pressure? _She wondered as she set her plate down and moved over to Ichigo and tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to turn his head and look at her as she leaned in and brushed her lips across his.

It was a bold move to make in front of company, especially when Ichigo had been the one initiating everything up until now.

The second Ichigo felt her lips on his, his heart stuttered in his chest in shock and he parted his lips slightly- curious to see if he could coax Honey into a deeper kiss regardless of who was watching. He was happy that she had finally mustered up enough courage to initiate something with him without feeling shy or falling to pieces.

It meant that his efforts were finally getting through to her.

Yay!

Honey, taking his slightly parted lips as a signal of some kind- framed his face in her hands and gave him a more thorough kiss. Ichigo closed his eyes and lifted his arms to wrap around Honey's slender body, pulling her almost into his lap as he leaned more fully into her touch wanting to savor the feel of her softness while he could.

It was right about then that both he and his wife were reminded that they weren't alone by the sound of someone clearing their throat awkwardly. Causing Honey to pull away from him, her face a bright red color as Ichigo shot a killer's glare toward the damned idiot that had ruined his kiss. And saw Ikaku shift uncomfortably.

_I better not catch that bastard in a dark alley- _Ichigo thought darkly as he continued to glare at him. Thinking up creative ways to murder him and not get caught.


End file.
